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LG Electronics to receive Wi-Fi patent royalties from Amazon

Published: 20 Nov. 2025, 16:51 Updated: 20 Nov. 2025, 18:59

The photo shows LG Electronics’ headquarters in Yeongdeungpo District, western Seoul, on July 5, 2024. [YONHAP]

LG Electronics will receive Wi-Fi patent royalties from Amazon in the United States, expanding its intellectual property business despite having exited the smartphone market in 2021.

The company said Thursday it signed a patent licensing agreement with global e-commerce giant Amazon for the use of LG’s standard essential Wi-Fi patents. Under the deal, Amazon can apply LG’s Wi-Fi standard patents to devices, including its Alexa AI speakers, Fire TV Stick streaming devices and Fire tablets.

Standard essential patents are core patents that must be used for any product that complies with international standards. Once a technology becomes part of an industry’s global standard, companies adopt it in developing their products.

LG Electronics holds about 97,880 registered patents worldwide as of its 2025 semiannual report, and roughly half of them are standard patents, according to the company. Its patented technologies are already applied in key products such as organic light-emitting diode TVs, washing machines and refrigerators, and also span future technologies, including telecommunications, automotive components and 6G communications.

Although LG pulled out of the smartphone business in 2021, it has been expanding its intellectual property operations by leveraging the mobile and communications technologies it has accumulated over decades. In 2022, the company added “licensing of patents and other intellectual property [IP] rights” to its articles of incorporation as part of its business objectives.

The standard patent licensing business is handled by the IP Center under Chief Technology Officer Kim Byoung-hoon, as patents developed and managed by the R&D-focused organization have started generating revenue. LG Electronics said it is also negotiating Wi-Fi standard essential patent licensing deals with several other global companies.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY SHIM SEO-HYUN [[email protected]]