Samsung, Sony agree to share some patents

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Samsung, Sony agree to share some patents

Samsung Electronics and Sony said yesterday that they signed a cross-licensing agreement for patent technologies. The comprehensive agreement enables affiliated companies around the world to freely use most patents without any separate negotiations. The agreement was the result of negotiations that began late last year. “The goal was to construct a mutually beneficial relationship whereby Samsung and Sony could use each others’ patent portfolios to effectively keep pace with the fast and sophisticated advancement of digital technologies,” the companies said. Samsung and Sony will share basic semiconductor technology and industry standard technologies, but will keep ownership of certain patents to foster the uniqueness of each company, such as design rights and technology for organic light emitting diode displays and thin film transistor-liquid crystal displays. In Samsung’s case, technology related to its Digital Natural Image Engine, a set of four technologies for advanced image processing, and home networking will not be licensed to Sony. Likewise, Sony will hold the rights to Digital Reality Creation, a technology to display high-quality images, and PlayStation Architecture. “In digital electronics, basic technologies are pretty much common. To retain competitiveness, we need to improve our differentiating technologies and offer value-added products,” said Sony executive vice president Yoshihide Nakamura. The two companies have acquired the largest number of patents through extensive research and development projects around the world. In the United States alone, Samsung holds 11,000 patents and Sony has 13,000. Samsung and Sony also have a joint venture for liquid crystal displays. In March, they invested a total of 2.1 trillion won to establish a plant in South Chungcheong province, which will begin mass production in the first half of next year. by Wohn Dong-hee
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