Friday, March 22, 2013
16. Ericsson a troll?
Samsung has felt that Ericsson behaved like a patent troll, and is now retaliating and countersuing them with 8 more patents in Texas. Samsung has claimed that "Ericsson seeks to dismantle the standard-setting framework with unreasonable and discriminatory license demands from a willing license under threat of product exclusion." It is surprising to many people that Ericsson would be considered as a troll, especially since it was involved in the mobile phone business previously and was relatively successful. Reading about this retaliation also made me wonder if the negative connotation that patent trolls have causes companies to resort to more extreme measures to 'punish' them. Would Samsung have done the same retaliation if Ericsson were still in the business and not assumed to be a troll? Why is raising the licensing demands wrong to begin with, especially since the patent does give the right for owners to receive royalties?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I read about this too. I thought that Samsung stating that Ericsson was behaving like a patent troll was a pretty aggressive and strong statement. Samsung is claiming that Ericsson is asking for unreasonable fees and other demands from them.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to hear that Ericsson has been seen as a patent troll. I doubt if Ericsson's mobile phones are successful. I mean their market profile is good compare to others, but the quality of the phones are so disappointed.
ReplyDeletei agree with elisa that it's a very bold statement – and the underlying reliability is questioned given the multiple conflict of interests between these two companies.
ReplyDeleteSamsung and Ericsson have been patent enemies for awhile now. It's not surprising that Samsung would say this, although it sure looks like Ericsson is acting like a patent troll
ReplyDeleteI think that this case is particularly interesting, given that Sony and Ericsson had previously pursued a joint venture with Sony Ericsson phones. It seems that Ericsson, after selling their part of the joint venture to Sony, is pursuing a more active "patent troll" monetization strategy in the face of the inability to make profits otherwise, similar to the way that Nokia kicked off the smartphone patent war by suing Apple in the face of declining profits.
ReplyDelete