Samsung has struck two landmark agreements – one with Google and another one with Ericsson that will allow them to use their patents and end ongoing disputes. While Samsung and Google have been friends for a long time, both companies decided to enter into a cross-licensing patent agreement that will allow both companies to use each other’s existing patents and any patent filed in the next 10 years.
Going by the quotes by executives from both the companies, it seems Samsung and Google want to set an example that two major companies can work together without litigating.
Meanwhile, an agreement with Ericsson is more of a settlement with the Swedish company that settles all ongoing litigations globally. The cross licensing agreement covers patents related to GSM, UMTS and LTE and though the detailed agreement is confidential, Ericsson claims it will receive some compensation initially and ongoing royalty payments from Samsung that will affect its balance sheet.
Whatever the case is, we think the ultimate motive here for Samsung is to gain some leverage over Apple since both these companies have been battling in courts worldwide with the Korean giant more on the receiving end than the iPhone maker.
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