Just last week Apple won a legal battle against Samsung that entitles it to damages amounting to just over $1 billion. The California giant filed the lawsuit against Samsung on grounds of infringing on several patents and a jury in San Jose found in favor of it. The patents revolved primarily around the design of the phone and the effects on the display. Now, it appears that Samsung is preparing for the eventuality that it will have to go to court against Apple over patents pertaining to LTE technology.
With rumors of the iPhone 5 surfacing almost on a daily basis, Samsung appears to have considered the possibility that the new phone will support LTE technology. The Korean giant is just waiting for the new phone to feature LTE technology before it can start firing away at Apple. Currently, Samsung holds the largest number of LTE patents in the industry. This number comes in at 819, which is nearly 13% of all patents filed. Out of these, a majority were developed by the company itself meaning that it will definitely have a strong case should it go to court on valid grounds.
On the other hand, Apple has only 44 patents that were developed in house. However, it is now on a spree to load up patents in preparation of a pre-emptive strike. The company has been acquiring all possible patents and with its own IP and the purchased ones, it has around 434 patents. The firm with the second highest number of patents relating to LTE is InterDigital, an American company that has 780 patents. It is possible that both Apple and Samsung will be looking to acquire some from InterDigital too.
Until last year, Apple didn’t have any LTE patent registered with the European Telecommunications Standards Institute because none of the ones it developed in house complied with the standards. However, with the purchased ones, it can get a foothold there too. Right now, Apple is among the 10 largest LTE patent holders in the world with the possibility of increasing its count further. However, the actual patent battle will not be related to standard technological patents but to commercial LTE intellectual property and it is unclear where Apple and Samsung stand in that respect. It will be interesting to see how both companies might take on another legal battle now.
