Why is Samsung Being Sued by Huawei and Others?
Huawei – one of the emerging smartphone manufacturers – yesterday put Samsung Electronics, the market leader in terms of volume, in crosshairs with a patent infringement lawsuit. The Chinese telecom giant has filed a suit in the US federal court and in China, claiming that the Korean manufacturer violated 11 patents currently owned by Huawei. These include unlicensed 4G communication technology, OS, and UI in Samsung’s LTE-enabled smartphones.
Samsung has only stated that the company is working to defend its business interests without providing an elaborate plan of action. This is not the first time Samsung is under fire for patent infringement. The most popular patent litigation battle was when Apple sued Samsung in the US back in 2011 saying Samsung had imitated the iPhone and employed unlicensed technology. The charge was to a tune of $2 billion, but was reduced down to $120 million by the jury for patent infringement damages. The Korean giant was also asked to change its design due to allegations of it being stolen from Apple. Both companies, however, came to terms soon and dropped suits against each other in other regions, but continued with their battle in US.
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Fall 2014 saw another company filing a lawsuit against Samsung. This time around, it was Nvidia, who claimed that Samsung infringed on patents that cover graphics chips — Nvidia’s primary domain. Samsung countersued saying Nvidia violated about six different patents and was involved in misleading advertising practices. However, soon both companies came to terms and decided to drop their lawsuits.
The interesting bit about the recent lawsuit is that this time a Chinese company is a plaintiff rather than a defendant in a patent litigation. The country is filled with smartphone companies that make replicas and even borrow design ideas from other established brands. However, their expansion is mostly limited to China or at max Asia. International laws that govern intellectual property rights make it difficult for such companies to expand.
It’s not just the smartphone it is quite clear that China has a cloning problem. Alibaba, one of the top e-commerce platforms in the world, is also under fire for selling counterfeit products on websites. Clones and identical copies are quite rampant, and as we move on, most courtroom battles will be over patent litigation. IP cases are on the rise as innovation takes center stage and companies rush to secure patents by dozens. Huawei claims to have more than 50,000 patents under its helm globally. Samsung has also been filing patents rapidly — 7,679 patents were granted to the company in 2015, while 4,443 applications are still pending. Samsung revealed that it holds more than 100,000 patents globally as of 2012. The company didn’t reveal any other statistics after that. The copy of the patent is available on Scribd, however, certain parts are blacked out, which shows it’s not just an old patent feud, but something else as well.
Source: Tech News Today
Samsung has only stated that the company is working to defend its business interests without providing an elaborate plan of action. This is not the first time Samsung is under fire for patent infringement. The most popular patent litigation battle was when Apple sued Samsung in the US back in 2011 saying Samsung had imitated the iPhone and employed unlicensed technology. The charge was to a tune of $2 billion, but was reduced down to $120 million by the jury for patent infringement damages. The Korean giant was also asked to change its design due to allegations of it being stolen from Apple. Both companies, however, came to terms soon and dropped suits against each other in other regions, but continued with their battle in US.
Read Also: KUKE Case: A Fix For Your iPhone's Battery And Storage Problems
Fall 2014 saw another company filing a lawsuit against Samsung. This time around, it was Nvidia, who claimed that Samsung infringed on patents that cover graphics chips — Nvidia’s primary domain. Samsung countersued saying Nvidia violated about six different patents and was involved in misleading advertising practices. However, soon both companies came to terms and decided to drop their lawsuits.
The interesting bit about the recent lawsuit is that this time a Chinese company is a plaintiff rather than a defendant in a patent litigation. The country is filled with smartphone companies that make replicas and even borrow design ideas from other established brands. However, their expansion is mostly limited to China or at max Asia. International laws that govern intellectual property rights make it difficult for such companies to expand.
It’s not just the smartphone it is quite clear that China has a cloning problem. Alibaba, one of the top e-commerce platforms in the world, is also under fire for selling counterfeit products on websites. Clones and identical copies are quite rampant, and as we move on, most courtroom battles will be over patent litigation. IP cases are on the rise as innovation takes center stage and companies rush to secure patents by dozens. Huawei claims to have more than 50,000 patents under its helm globally. Samsung has also been filing patents rapidly — 7,679 patents were granted to the company in 2015, while 4,443 applications are still pending. Samsung revealed that it holds more than 100,000 patents globally as of 2012. The company didn’t reveal any other statistics after that. The copy of the patent is available on Scribd, however, certain parts are blacked out, which shows it’s not just an old patent feud, but something else as well.
Source: Tech News Today
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