“Ericsson, the world’s biggest telecom network equipment maker, said it was suing Samsung Electronics Co for patent infringement after two years of talks failed to yield a license agreement,” Anna Ringstrom reports for Reuters. “The Ericsson dispute concerns patented technology the Swedish firm says is essential to several telecommunications and networking standards used by Samsung’s products as well as other patented inventions that are frequently implemented in wireless and consumer electronics products, the company said… Samsung said it will ‘take all necessary legal measures to protect against Ericsson’s excessive claims.'”
“Sweden’s Ericsson, which reckons more than 40 percent of the world’s mobile traffic passes through its networks, filed a lawsuit in the United States saying Samsung had refused to sign a license to use technology on terms it referred to as fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND),” Ringstrom reports. “Samsung is also embroiled in a legal war with Apple in more than 20 disputes in 10 countries, with Apple alleging various Samsung smartphone and tablet products infringed its patents. ‘Ericsson now has plenty of material from Samsung’s litigations with Apple to quote in support of high FRAND royalty rates and sales bans,’ said Florian Mueller, blogger and patent expert who has advised Microsoft and Oracle in the past.”
Ringstrom reports, “FRAND licensing terms are used for patents and technologies that have become essential, often as an industry standard. Ericsson says its FRAND licensing aims to give companies the incentive to contribute technology to open standards and still maintain royalty rates at a reasonable level.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Samsung claiming FRAND abuse is pure hypocrisy.
Related articles:
FTC staff said to formally recommend antitrust lawsuit against Google over FRAND abuse – November 1, 2012
U.S. FTC investigating Google, Motorola Mobility over FRAND abuse – June 30, 2012
Apple asked standards body to set rules for essential FRAND patents – February 8, 2012
Lawyers rejoicing around the world
Samsung’s House at Thanksgiving
Ding Dong, “Oh who could that be at this hour”, “Oh, hey it’s Ericsson, I wonder what they want”. “Crap.”
It would be funnier to compare it to Samsung’s house @ Halloween:
It is Ericsson: trick or treat!
Samesung showing their true colors for all to see 🙂
Time to pile on all you companies whom Samsung stole from, join the party!!
The world needs to realize Samsuck is a thieving, unscrupulous company… boycott ALL of their products!
When will the courts get it and throw the book at this rogue company?
HELLOOOooo Kettle!
Hypocrisy, shimocrisy… Lets get one thing straight – modern business, whoever is playing, is not about ethical behaviour: corporations run on the premise that you leave your ethics at the door on your way in. In the USA, this is not only understood, but Americans participate in this ethics-free zone every day at the office. It translates to a tolerance for ethics-free politics: note that Gingrich could still run, despite an earlier erhics violation; Palin lied on TV about her reading of international journalsi; Paul Ryan lied about the closure of a car plant, and Romney lied about everything. Half the nation couldn’t have cared less. Samsung copies and cheats, and Americans and others everywhere overlook this and buy their products. Hypocrisy? Its the current fashion Im afraid…
Undoubtedly some unethical behavior does translate to a tolerance for more, but there are other, stronger forces at work. Human nature has been described as “that owned by the singular animal that readily destroys itself.”
After witnessing the chagrin of the election prognosticators when their “insight” and “expertise” were so cruelly exposed, I’m not afraid to go out on a limb and opine that half of the nation didn’t care about the political lies because:
They were empathetic: “not really lies but simple human error” (1%); cynical: “all politicians lie so it evens out” (2%); combative: “oh yeah? the other party’s lies are worse” (2%); only human: “lies? what lies?” (confirmation bias) (55%); or apathetic: “what election?” (40%).
Irony at its finest. Since Samesung ships/sells the greatest number of smartphones, they would hurt the most from a high royalty rate on FRAND patents.