Court Rules Against Samsung: Must Pay For Unlocking Patent Violations

In case it wasn’t obvious, not all the features you find on your Samsung phone are made or invented 100% by Samsung. Like with many companies, Samsung licenses various patents to create its products. Unfortunately, it looks like Samsung might have violated some of them. A US court has ruled that Samsung has infringed upon smart home and smartphone patents and is now required to pay $117.7 million in damages to Japanese company, Maxwell.

The lawsuit dates back to 2023. Maxwell sued Samsung for allegedly violating as many as seven patents and selling products that infringed upon them, including smartphones, laptops, and smart home appliances. It covers features such as device unlocking, information processing, networking, and the reproduction of images and videos.

The report claims that Samsung and Maxwell had a working relationship dating back to 2011. In 2011, Samsung signed a licensing agreement with Maxwell’s predecessor, Hitachi, to use 10 of its patents for 10 years. However, that agreement ended in 2021, after which Samsung did not renew the license. Maxwell says it attempted to contact Samsung about renewing the license, but Samsung refused, claiming that those patents were invalid. This led to Maxwell taking the Korean tech giant to court.

Maxwell has sued Samsung in several countries, including Germany, Japan, and the USA. We can’t speak to the legal outcome in those countries, but in the US, a court ruled that Samsung infringed on those patents and ordered Samsung to pay Maxwell damages of $117.7 million. Samsung can appeal the ruling if it isn’t satisfied, so we’ll have to wait and see.

Another epic legal battle for the ages?

This is not the first time Samsung has been involved in a lawsuit over alleged patent infringements. The company’s most notorious lawsuit involved Apple. The lawsuit between them went back and forth for many years, leading to injunctions, banned products, and more.

The lawsuit was eventually settled, with neither side walking away unscathed. Patent lawsuits are pretty common in the tech industry. Some are legitimate claims. Others are filed by patent trolls, companies, or individuals who register vague patents in an attempt to force other companies to settle to avoid a lengthy lawsuit.