“On Friday, Microsoft filed a lawsuit against Samsung, accusing the company of going back on the patent licensing deal the two signed three years ago,” Nick Wingfield reports for The New York Times.
“In the lawsuit, Microsoft said that Samsung stopped making royalty payments to Microsoft last fall, as required by their 2011 agreement, which related to Samsung’s use of Microsoft’s intellectual property in its Android smartphones and tablets,” Wingfield reports. “Samsung stopped making the payments, according to Microsoft, because it felt that Microsoft’s acquisition of Nokia‘s mobile business amounted to a breach of contract.”
” In a blog post, David Howard, Microsoft’s deputy general counsel and corporate vice president, suggested that the real reason Samsung decided to stop paying was that its smartphones sales have quadrupled since the two companies signed their agreement,” Wingfield reports. “The heavily redacted lawsuit does not say how much money Microsoft believes it is owed by Samsung. Analysts have estimated that Microsoft receives billions of dollars a year in payments through licensing agreements with Android-device makers.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: When you enter into a deal with the devil, you should expect hell.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]
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Google claims Microsoft’s Samsung Android licensing deal is ‘extortion’ – September 28, 2011
Microsoft and Samsung cross-license patents; Samsung to pay Microsoft royalties for Android devices – September 28, 2011
Did they REALLY say “felt”. Sheesh! Breach of contract is not a “feeling”; it’s a fact, which can be determined.
Re: MDN take. Steve did it. I think Apple’s still doing ok.
Steve pulled a fast one on Microsoft to be more accurate, buying time and manipulating the situation to his advantage while MS thought it was doing the same to save itself from anti competition and monopolist accusations. Steve used its power against it as he did time and again and the result is the final defeat of Microsoft as a serious competitor. Not sure Samsung can claim the same thing in this.
I usually don’t say this but:
“Go Microsoft Go!”
The enemy of my enemy….
… may well still be my enemy.
Duke it out, bottom feeders!
Q: When two people you don’t like are in a fight, whom do you root for?
A: INJURIES !!!
Send in Korean sympathizer judge Lucy Koh to ensure her homeland company gets a favorable ruling!!!!
Never a truer word was said.
Apple got screwed because of her.
M$ was never anything more than a law firm disguised as a tech company, and a pretty good one, as history has shown, so good luck with that, Assmung.
Maybe SlamDungs actual SALES will see the light of day.
That’s a very good point. Samsung would rather settle than be shamed by what they’ve been hiding. You *know* the sales of the premium models have to have been well below the iPhone or else they’d have been crowing about it.
Don’t the people running Samsung know when enough is enough, or is IP theft so deeply ingrained into their corporate culture that they just can’t help themselves? Can they really afford the bad PR?
No, yes, apparently.
I like the ambiguity in MDN’ s take.
Deadbeats!
Samsung CEO Kim Kook says, many new products coming. Many many.
Yep – all copies from other companies hard work and R&D
Racism /s
Let me guess, 64 bits, Metal cases, even larger screens and possibly a blatant ripoff of TouchID (that one might still take more time).
There new Galaxy Phone WD will also wash and dry your laundry as well as make phone calls. . . and prepare your dinner in the auxiliary Microwave 3D surround sound oven.
I am not a layer but as far as I understand it, a contract is an an agreement between two entities by which they acquire both rights and obligations.
M$ acquired the right to receive payments in exchange for the obligation of allowing to use their IP
Scamsung acquired the right to use M$’s IP in exchange for the obligation of paying for its use.
If the contract is breached then both rights and obligations cease to be in effect.
M$ lost the right to receive payments and Scamsung lost the right to use of the patents.
Of course the contract surely contains a breach-of-contract clause that specifies what happens if anyone of the signing parties fails to abide by their obligations.
Scamsung “felt” that contract obliged M$ to keep from buying a phone manufacturing company (Nokia), and “felt” the breach-of-contract allows them to use the patents freely.
Yes, you are right: you are not a lawyer.
…or a “layer.”
> Analysts have estimated that Microsoft receives billions of dollars a year in payments through licensing agreements with Android-device makers.
Probably more than Microsoft currently makes by licensing Windows 8.
Samdung getting pummeled from all sides. Poor Samdung. NOT.
Lol MDN takes have been on a roll these last few days
Legally samscum hasn’t got a leg to stand on.
Microsoft should screw the Korean bitches for everything they’ve got.
Well unless you have seen the terms of the settlement you can’t actually be sure of that. However this if we see more of the Apple battles is most likely to be purely tactical and delaying tactics.
Good to see these two giants in a courtroom for a bleeding change, at long last. I wonder, will this story generate as many clicks for the parasites without the word Apple in the headline?
I’ll be keeping tally, Journalists.
The real reason Samsung decided to stop paying is they want the money.
Best of luck there Microsoft, you haven’t a hope in hell.
Maybe the real reason Samsung isn’t paying is to make their horrible financial results look better. At this point, it’s probably cheaper to wage a defensive war in court.
——RM
Nokia is looking forward to renegotiating its Patent license with Samsung next year too!
The screw is turning. The shysters have known that inventory for Samsung had been rising. Like all “competitors” of apple, (palm, blackberry) channel stuffing went on while the WS shysters continued to push claims that apple was losing out.
Now come the Chinese manufacturers. The shysters will lie about how they are gaining on apple. While true in China, it will be totally unfounded for the rest of the world. At some point, even the Chinese will saturate their own market. Aplle will continue to grow in china as more and more Chinese earn better. Apple will eat into the consumers who previously bought a cheaper phone.
Of course, if china through government dictate stops sales of apple, all bets are off.
With samsung’s decline, there will no longer be payola to gear ease the shysters hands. So now they will do everything to turn on Samsung.
Samsung have a good argument. If an agreement was entered into between the two parties with the proviso neither would tread on each others toes then Microsoft are in breach by purchasing Nokia which is Samsungs core business. Microsoft cannot claim excessive loyaltys under contract then think its ok to breach its own terms then somehow lay blame on others because they are getting screwed. Apple is another culprit of these shifty business tactics. With Apple at 12% market share and Microsoft at 3%, who really cares about these minor players in the world smart phone business. Samsung own the world market, period!
Hello? Since when was Nokia Scamscum’s “core” business?
A patent license agreement seldom includes such an agreement, especially one that resulted out of a lawsuit as did the Microsoft Samsung agreement in which Samsung was forced to agree to pay MS royalties.
I believe what you are suggesting is illegal on its face as it relates to anti-trust laws.
this is very good for Apple!!! right before Apple releases their new phones, and other devices! I bet apple paid Microsoft to launch this lawsuit now hahah
If Samsung is right, all Android related licensees from MSFT will stop. MSFT is screwed, but so may be Android, since w/o a license, they can’t use the software that MSFT is licensing. Doubt that Xaomi is a licensee. Probably the Xaomi hasn’t ventured into US. Moto had ceased paying MSFT when its license expired. Not sure how that was resolved, but that is now Lenovo’s problem. If Android falls apart, Apple will not be able to keep up with demand pending the development and distribution of non Android options such as Mozilla/Firefox.