Sony and Samsung to Cross-License Patents
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Sony Corp. 6758.T and Samsung  Electronics 005930.KS said on Tuesday they had agreed to  share patents on basic technology to speed up product  development and avoid adding to a growing number of  cross-border patent disputes.
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Samsung Electronics Co. said Monday that it has agreed to a cross-licensing agreement on patents with Sweden's LM Ericsson in wireless communications technology.
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Seoul, December 14: South Korea&#39;s Samsung electronics and Sony of Japan on Tuesday singed an agreement to share patents for digital technologies in major products, Samsung said.
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Microsoft and Turbolinux, a Tokyo-based Linux distributor, are cozying up with a patent cross-licensing deal and agreement to work more closely together, the companies said Tuesday.For users, one of the most significant elements to the deal is a pledge to work on a single sign-on system that will allow log-on to Windows-based and Turbolinux-based machines with one set of credentials.At present Windows and Turbolinux machines on a mixed network can&#39;t access a common authentication database, but their deal should change this, said Noriko Otake, a spokeswoman for Turbolinux in Tokyo.To further this work and other cross-platform projects, the two companies have also entered into a patent cross-licensing deal, specific details of which were not disclosed.Interoperability testing of single sign-on and other future projects will take place at Microsoft&#39;s offices in Beijing. Turbolinux is active worldwide but has its strongest footprint in Japan and China.Turbolinux will also add&#160;Microsoft&#39;s Live Search&#160;service to its desktop operating system.The deal expands cooperation between the two companies that is intended to remove some of the hassles of using Linux, said Otake. Earlier this year Turbolinux added Windows Media Player to its platform, allowing users access to the large amount of content online encoded in that format, and the company has also been working on support for the Open XML document format.Turbolinux also said it will participate in the Interoperability Vendor Alliance, a Microsoft-sponsored community of software and hardware vendors.For Microsoft the deal is the latest in a string of over 200 patent-licensing agreements signed since it launched an intellectual property licensing program in late 2003. Last week the company announced a similar deal with Japanese digital imaging vendor Olympus Corp., and previous agreements have included Novell,&#160;Fuji Xerox, Linspire, Kenwood, LG Electronics, Nortel Networks,&#160;and Samsung Electronics.&#160;
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Samsung and Sony have signed a five-year cross-licensing agreement covering a wide range of patents for digital products. The agreement should reduce the potential for disputes
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Samsung Electronics has replied to a&#160;patent-infringement lawsuit filed against it by Sharp&#160;by lodging complaints of its own with the U.S. International Trade Commission and the Tokyo District Court, it said Thursday.Samsung filed the U.S. complaint on Dec. 21 and alleged that Sharp&#39;s LCD products infringe upon four of its U.S. patents. The patents were not detailed in Samsung&#39;s statement. It asked the trade regulator to launch an investigation into the complaints and, as is typical in such cases, block Sharp from importing into the U.S. products that contain the LCDs in question. Such products could include TVs, monitors, laptop PCs, and cell phones.The ITC will now examine the complaint and decide whether to move forward with a formal investigation.Samsung followed the U.S. complaint with a complaint lodged in Tokyo on Wednesday in which it alleged that LCD televisions sold by Sharp in Japan incorporate LCD modules that infringe upon two of Samsung&#39;s Japanese patents. As in the U.S. complaint, Samsung asked the court to halt manufacturing and sales of the infringing products in Japan.On Dec. 12,&#160;Sharp filed a patent-infringement lawsuit against Samsung&#160;in the Seoul Central District Court. The lawsuit alleges the LCD modules and televisions manufactured and/or sold by Samsung in South Korea infringe upon three Sharp patents. The Korean patents concern technology that allows high brightness and high-speed response as well as a wide viewing angle, Sharp said in a statement at the time.The lawsuit was the second filed by Sharp against Samsung.On Aug. 6, Sharp filed a suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas alleging LCD modules manufactured by Samsung and LCD TVs, computer monitors and mobile phones that incorporate the modules infringed on its U.S. patents: 4,649,383 , 5,760,855 , 6,052,162 , 7,027,024, and 7,057,689 .Samsung said Thursday that it is also pursuing lawsuits against Sharp in Delaware and Texas.
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Samsung Electronics Co. and Sony Corp. have agreed in principle to invest further in their liquid crystal display joint venture, a Samsung executive said Thursday.
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Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.  (005930.KS) on Friday said it plans to introduce a line of  digital music players and a download service, under an  agreement with privately held media provider MusicNet.
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LONDON - After a year of negotiations two of the world&#39;s giants of consumer electronics, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and Sony Corp.
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft inked another cross-licensing patent agreement Wednesday, this time with South Korea's LG Electronics, covering the company's Linux-based embedded devices. As part of the deal, LG, one of the world's largest electronics companies, can use undefined "patented Microsoft technology" in its products, including Linux-based devices. The agreement also covers intellectual property contained in other hardware and software products, such as game consoles. LG is a manufacturer of CDMA, GSM, and 3G handsets; IP phones; plasma TVs; optical storage products; PDAs; notebook computers; DVD players; and home theater systems, among other electronic products. As in similar deals with Xandros (announced earlier this week), Novell, Samsung and Fuji Xerox, Microsoft did not detail just what patents LG was licensing, and LG did not say if its Linux-based devices violated any Microsoft patents. As part of the deal, Microsoft will have access to LG patents that cover computer architecture utilized in game consoles and other products and will license other LG patents that are owned by system integrator MicroConnect Group, which is based in Manchester, England. "This agreement is focused only on exchange of patent rights," said David Kaefer, general manager of IP licensing at Microsoft. "The open-source elements of the deal do utilize a covenant model similar to the Xandros and Novell deals, but this deal is most similar to recent agreements with Samsung and Fuji Xerox." Those deals were signed this year in April and March, respectively. Both covered general access to intellectual property contained in patent portfolios and included protection for customers using Linux-based software. In terms of the "customer covenant" clause in those deals, Kaefer said, "The covenants are structured very similarly." Microsoft and LG did not release financial terms of the deal but said in a press release that Microsoft would make a "net balancing" payment to LG and MicroConnect for patents related to operating systems and computer systems. Microsoft made a similar "net balancing" payment as part of its deal with Novell that, according to that contract, reflected "the larger applicable volume of Microsoft's product shipments" versus that of Novell's products. In addition, LG will be making ongoing payments to Microsoft to cover Microsoft patents as they relate to Linux-based embedded devices that LG produces. LG Enterprises comprises four business units -- Mobile Communications, Digital Appliance, Digital Display, and Digital Media. The company produced $48.5 billion in global sales in 2006. The company is a member of the Consumer Electronics Linux Forum, which also includes Sony, Panasonic, Motorola, and others. None of those companies have cross-licensing deals with Microsoft. A search on the LG Web site turned up only one reference to Linux, which was the 2005 release of a set-top box sold under the DirecTV brand name that included "a general-purpose Linux-operating-system." In 2001, LG produced a Linux -based wireless webpad for home users that included Internet support and a built-in multimedia player. LG also is a partner of Microsoft in that it licenses Windows CE for use in its IP phones and produces Windows-based notebook computers. The deal with LG comes after Microsoft said last month it would seek royalties for patents that it says are being infringed upon by open-source technologies like Linux. The company, however, said it would prefer to sign patent and cross-licensing deals with open-source distributors rather than seek payments via litigation. The open-source community, specifically the Free Software Foundation, reacted by tweaking the final draft release of the GNU General Public License (GPL) 3.0, which was released May 31, to prohibit such patent deals. The GPLv3 is expected to be officially published on June 29. Open source advocates contend that Microsoft is doing no more than bullying the Linux community with the threat of patent violations because it has not divulged what patents are infringed upon by Linux and other open-source software. Microsoft reiterated this week at its annual TechEd conference that its position is to protect intellectual property rights. "The approach that Microsoft is taking is to work with industry partners to ensure that when customers want to use open-source software, they can do so with the knowledge and security that the software brings with it all the licensing rights that are required," Bob Muglia, senior vice president for server and tools at Microsoft, said during his keynote address Monday. In a press release announcing the partnership, LG and MicroConnect executives struck the same tone. "We believe in the importance of respecting the [intellectual property] rights of others and that patent collaboration and protection is a best business practice the whole industry should be engaged in," said Jeong Hwan Lee, executive vice president of the Intellectual Property Center at LG. Alan Loudermilk, founding partner of MicroConnect, said, "MicroConnect is pleased to be able to make a contribution to the strengthened [intellectual property] relationship between LGE and Microsoft."
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Sony and Ampex have agreed to end their dispute over a patent covering thumbnail images in digital image storage and retrieval devices.
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Samsung Electronics said Monday that it has agreed to a cross-licensing agreement on patents with Swedenâs Ericsson in wireless communications technology.
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&quot;NVIDIA and Intel Corporation announced that the companies have signed a broad, multi-year patent cross-license agreement spanning multiple product lines and product generations.
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The two companies reach a settlement and sign a cross-licensing agreement, ending years of litigation over patent infringement.
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The patents needed for an overarching Digital Rights Management (DRM) system for protecting digital music, video, and software from illegal file sharing over mobile devices have been successfully pooled together, the film and music technology company MPEG LA announced Thursday.
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(InfoWorld) - The U.S. International Trade Commission said Thursday it will investigate complaints by Ericsson and its Swedish parent company that Samsung ElectronicsÂ and two of its U.S. companies violated patents used its mobile handsets. Ericsson and Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson filed a complaint against Samsung's Korean parent company, Samsung Telecommunications America and Samsung Electronics America, alleging that Samsung's importation of its patented mobile phones and components violated U.S. law, according to an ITC statement. The ITC set no timetable for the investigation, but said it would establish a target date for the completion of the investigation to within 45 days of its institution. EricssonÂ filed suit against SamsungÂ in a Texas court August 2, alleging that Samsung is infringing on its patents for mobile handsets and some of their components. The case is part of legal action taken by the Swedish company against its Korean rival and former partner since February, after the two failed to renew a 2002 licensing arrangement for patented technology. The deal expired at the end of 2005.
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Microsoft Corp.  and South Korea's LG Electronics  said on Wednesday they have entered into a patent cross-license agreement.