Samsung’s LTE Patent War Against Apple.

S. Korea’s major IT news paper ETNEWS reported that Samsung started to investigate a possible patent infringement for LTE technology adopted in Apple’s next version of its tablet, iPAD3 (http://www.etnews.com/news/home_mobile/information/2568398_1483.html).

Because it is known that Apple’s iPAD3 uses Qualcomm’s LTE chipsets, in case that Samsung sues Apple for LTE patent infringement, it could be possible that Apple may defend using exhaustion theory. The defense base on exhaustion theory, however, will depend on the existence of a cross-licensing agreement between Samsung and Qualcomm.

Another possible defense strategy may be a counter attack utilizing the acquired Nortel’s LTE patents. Recent TechIPm’s intensive research of LTE patents essential for LTE devices implementation (LTE Essential Patent Candidates 3Q 2011: http://techipm-innovationfrontline.blogspot.com/2011/07/lte-essential-patent-candidates-2011-3q.html), however, indicates that Nortel’s LTE patent portfolio may not be strong enough for the counter attack.

TechIPm’s LTE patent research specifically focused on LTE mobile devices currently deployed in the US market (cf. the data in recent Article One’s LTE patent report is mixed with infrastructure equipments patent information for the future EU market).


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