InterDigital, a wireless telecommunications research and development company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has filed a complaint with US International Trade Commission (ITC) against Samsung, Nokia, ZTE and Huawei Technologies for alleged patent infringement. The company, famous for holding numerous patents, has licensing agreements with several tech companies and it has in the past launched a number of complaints against repeat offenders.
InterDigital has alleged that the four companies have engaged in unfair trade practices by selling 3G and 4G wireless devices, including mobile phones, USB sticks, mobile hot spots, laptops and tablet computers and, as a direct result, have violated seven of the company’s patents. Lawrence Shay, president of InterDigital’s patent holding subsidiaries, has stated that the company’s contribution to core-connectivity technology, funded by nearly one billion dollars of research and development and manned by hundreds of wireless engineers over decades, continue to advance wireless technology. While some companies choose to acknowledge and appreciate these efforts and license the company’s portfolio, there are other companies that don’t and, as a result, legal action needs to be taken.
This isn’t the first time the company was compelled to defend its patents though. In the past, the company established firm patent agreements with Samsung and Apple, the former being one of the four companies accused of violating its agreement with InterDigital. In 2011, InterDigital filed an ITC complaint against the remaining three companies accusing them of infringing 3G patents. There is, however, one major company that hasn’t been included in InterDigital’s list of patent violators – BlackBerry maker, Research in Motion (RIM). RIM has even expanded its patent agreement this week itself, so that it can incorporate InterDigital’s technology in the upcoming BlackBerry 10 devices.
Aside from protecting its patents from infringement, InterDigital and Sony have formed an alliance, dubbing it ‘Convida Alliance’, to develop wireless machine to machine technologies, also known as M2M. These technologies will enable handsets to wirelessly transmit data between them, which is similar to the Bluetooth procedure for data transfer aside from the fact that M2M performs the transfer instantly without the need to pair devices. Toshimoto Mitomo, executive vice president of entrepreneurship and innovation for Sony Corporation of America, has expressed the company’s enthusiasm regarding the joint venture and is confident that InterDigital, a company having expertise in the area of M2M, will make an excellent partner.
