The second largest maker of mobile phone handsets in the world, Samsung Electronics, is examining the patent portfolio of InterDigital Inc. after it was approached for bidding, said two sources that were close to the matter. Samsung isn’t the only company considering the patents; Apple and Google along with a number of other potential buyers are also in the race, according to sources that preferred to remain anonymous due to the private nature of the talks.
The patents owned by InterDigital concern mobile technologies required in the transfer of data, and the company said last month that it had started employing bankers while considering the sale. Some of the mobile technologies used in high speed mobile phone networks by the largest handset manufacturers across the world were invented by the engineers of InterDigital. The company based in Pennsylvania could earn more than $5 billion from the patent sale, said analysts. Other companies such as Eastman Kodak, too, are looking to sell their patent portfolios.
If the South Korea based Samsung makes a bid, it will have to compete with Google and Apple for purchasing the whole or a part of the portfolio which contains more than 8,800 patents concerning technologies used in smartphones which range from the Android based smartphones to the iPhone and RIM’s BlackBerry line of handsets.
It has been forecast that sales of smartphones are going to double by 2015, according to Gartner Inc. Lee Seung Woo, an analyst based in Seoul, said that there are a lot of important patents which belong to the InterDigital portfolio and as the fight between Samsung and Apple heats up, Samsung can’t afford Apple to get the assets. Thus for reducing the risk on itself, Samsung will have to go ahead and bid, even if it costs them a huge premium.
Samsung is already caught up in a patent battle with Apple as the iPhone manufacturer filed a lawsuit against the Seoul-based company last April, alleging that its products have been slavishly copied in the designs of the latest as well as older Samsung Galaxy devices; Apple also requested the court to allow an injunction against the sale of these controversial devices.
Both the companies became the two largest smartphone makers in the world after their shipments surpassed Nokia’s. The Apple iPhones make up 18.5% of the world’s smartphone shipments, closely trailed by the 17.5% share of Samsung and 15.2% of Nokia.
