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The bitter patent battle between Samsung and Ericsson is now over.
The companies on Monday announced that they have ended all litigation against each other and have entered into a cross-licensing deal on cellular technologies.
Under the deal, Samsung will make an initial payment to the Swedish telecom equipment maker as well as “ongoing royalty payments” for the term of the new multi-year license agreement. The cross-license agreement covers patents relating to GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications), UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System), and LTE standards for both networks and handsets, according to Ericsson.
Though the terms of the deal were not disclosed, Ericsson said the initial payment in the agreement will impact its 2013 fourth-quarter sales and net income by 4.2 billion Swedish kronor ($651 million) and 3.3 billion Swedish kronor ($512 million) respectively.
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Samsung and Ericsson have been embroiled in patent lawsuits for quite some time, with the two companies suing each other over alleged patent infringement. The deal puts an end to “all ongoing patent related legal disputes,” including complaints made by both companies before the International Trade Commission and lawsuits in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
“We are pleased that we could reach a mutually fair and reasonable agreement with Samsung. We always viewed litigation as a last resort,” said Kasim Alfalahi, chief intellectual property officer at Ericsson, in a statement Monday. “This agreement allows us to continue to focus on bringing new technology to the global market and provides an incentive to other innovators to share their own ideas.”
Samsung on Sunday also unveiled a broad, long-term cross-licensing deal with Google that will cover their existing patents as well as those filed over the next 10 years.
