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Samsung Paid Microsoft $1 Billion Last Year In Android Royalties
An anonymous reader writes: According to recently unsealed court filings, Samsung Electronics paid Microsoft more than $1 billion in annual fees to use patented Microsoft technology in Samsung's Android phones. The patent treasures include methods for displaying multiple windows in a Web browser. "Samsung originally signed its patent deal with Microsoft in 2011, ahead of its impressive dominance of Android shipments, but late last year Samsung decided it was tired of paying on time, or paying interest when a late payment was finally made. Microsoft has taken Samsung to court over the issues, and the Korean company insists it wants to walk away from the original deal because of Microsoft’s purchase of Nokia’s phone business. Samsung claims the acquisition invalidates the cross-licensing IP agreement, but Microsoft doesnt agree and wants the company to pay $6.9 million in unpaid interest from last year."
When has google sued someone for software patent infringement? i can't recall a single case that wasn't in self defense.
Microsoft on the other hand, has been known for suing outright as well as shady deals like SCO, Nokia and other scummy tactics.
Luckily, Microsoft is circling the toilet bowl and won't be relevant years from now.
Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
What the large monies paid by Samsung indicates is the enormous mindshare and marketshare for Android. Windows on the mobile and tablet space is non-existent. For some years Microsoft might make money out of Android sales using these patent threats, being the litigious thugs they are.
But in a few years - say three at the max, Android makers will realise that these patents are really worthless, and back away from their agreements.
In any case a few billions in patent royalty is pocket change for Microsoft, and their bloated manpower will plunge them into the death spiral since Windows is becoming fast irrelevant in the only space it serves - viz, the desktop.
If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
Yep, pretty much every article references Google being sued or countersuing after being sued.
That said I did use google to search so the results could be biased. :)
Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
I don't know if you missed it, but it clearly says "STRIKES BACK."
Apple has been a patent lawsuit asshole every since Android roflstomped them in the market.
Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
Technically, does that make Microsoft a patent troll?
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
"On a computer" is a magical phrase. If no one has patented it yet, it's fair game - everything on a computer is novel to the patent office.
Not anymore since the US Supreme Court's verdict in Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank.
Luckily, Microsoft is circling the toilet bowl and won't be relevant years from now.
Man, I wish I could be circling the drain with $22 billions in profit in the last 12 months. The smartphone/tablet explosion has led to a decline in the PC market but it's still 80-90% of the max volume with Microsoft still having a 90%+ PC market share. Sure, they'd like a do-over to make even more money in the phone/tablet market but they're very, very far from hurting. And unless any of the major Android manufacturers decide to get serious about x86 then Microsoft and Intel will still be allies in the struggle against Android/Apple, which is to their advantage. I think you vastly underestimate what it takes to kill a mega-corporation like that, AMD took a good stab at Intel yet lost eventually. And even if they do fail, they'll take much longer than that to die and wither away. At least those who don't have Elop as a CEO, Microsoft might have dodged a bullet there...
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
The "patents" have been revealed in recent times and are not very good quality, esp. in light of the in re Bilsky decision by the Supreme Court. Quite simply put, they're paying danegeld to Microsoft in exchange for avoiding a costly litigation- the thing is...now they're in one anyhow. So they should man up and butt heads with Microsoft and do in this extortion bullshit once and for all.
I also think that this has nothing to do with MS or the royalties to MS. I think it has to do with Apple. Samsung, for some reason, gave MS a sweetheart deal on the thinnest of evidence. Samsung did not go to court, wait for google, but just paid MS a reletively large amount of cash for every handset sold. This tells me that there was so backroom negotiations going on, possible lawfully questionable negotiations. This, probably, is negatively effecting the Apple situation because if they were so eager to give MS money, why are they fighting Apple on claims that are at least as good? Which means that whatever possible underhanded deal Samsung made with MS is no longer paying off.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
The smartphone/tablet explosion has led to a decline in the PC market but it's still 80-90% of the max volume with Microsoft still having a 90%+ PC market share.
Problem is the PC market is long saturated and now showing obvious signs of decline. Meanwhile, Microsoft has little to no presence in ANYTHING that is replacing it. Think what Apple was prior to iPod/Pad/Phone; that's Microsoft's future if things continue on the present course.
And unless any of the major Android manufacturers decide to get serious about x86 then Microsoft and Intel will still be allies in the struggle against Android/Apple
From what I understand, Intel is working towards riding the Android train, and they supposedly have more engineers working on Android than even Google does. Their idea is to have x86 eventually replace ARM as the de-facto architecture of Android, which involves a two way race of getting Android to run more efficiently on x86, and then build x86 to be more energy efficient than ARM. It seems they already have a lot invested into both of those races.
Also, HP seems to be pushing rather aggressively to have Android run on business desktop systems. Lenovo, ASUS, and Acer seem to have similar goals, though not as much as HP.
By that logic, Intel will always have a noose around its neck now, because x64 architecture is also known after its inventor and patent holder: amd64.
Intel's 64 bit architecture, IA64 is more commonly remembered by the nick name of its only CPU: Itanic.
And x64 will remain extremely important for foreseeable future.
Don't forget that AMD has created the X86_64 instruction set, forcing Intel to cross-license the X86 and X86_64 instruction set forever with AMD. This is a extremely important step as 32 bits only X85 chips is close to be irrelevant, even if Windows OS market is so retarded that many of it users still don't use 64 bits OS. On the other hand, ARM64 will possibly be the next big problem for Intel in the server market, after it has basically completely lost the embedded market to 32 bits ARM. AMD has choose to play with each instruction set, and this could be a winning strategy in the future.