Toshiba will discuss new system royalties

Toshiba announced that its plans to impose a fixed 2 percent royalty on terminals that support digital mobile broadcasting services have not yet been finalized. The Japanese company holds the core technology for satellite mobile broadcasting, which will begin services in Korea this September. Last week, TU Media Corp., a consortium led by SK Telecom that will control digital mobile broadcasting in Korea, said Toshiba had demanded royalties for terminals sold in Korea. Digital mobile broadcasting is a service that enables users to view television through cellular phones or mobile television sets by means of satellite transmission. Toshiba held a press conference in Japan yesterday, saying that it plans to negotiate with Korean companies before setting details on royalties. It will send a negotiator to Korea soon. After Toshiba announced that it would impose royalties last week, TU Media and other Korean cellular phone makers such as Samsung Electronics presented an official letter to Toshiba requesting negotiations. Large phone makers such as Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics said they wanted to solve royalty problems through cross-licensing, where companies exchange technologies for patents that they already hold. Smaller companies lacking such technologies expressed dissatisfaction at paying royalties of 2 percent, and requested instead that royalty percentages be imposed according to the number of terminals sold. by Yoon Chang-hee