Business and Corporate Law: Samsung, Sharp Agrees to Drop Patent Infringement over LCD
February 8, 2010
Technology giants Sharp Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co. are set to drop all patent infringement lawsuits against each other after both companies have come up with a cross-licensing agreement.
However, the two companies did not reveal the amount of royalties and other details about the financial agreement.
The dispute, which involved technologies used in LCD televisions, started two years ago when both companies filed their complaints before the US International Trade Commission (ITC) accusing each other of patent infringement.
Samsung and Sharp had requested ITC to ban imports of each other’s televisions in the US market, prompting the agency to hand down a decision preventing the two companies to sell their LCDs in the country.
According to previous reports, Samsung LCDs accounted for almost 17 percent of the US sales while Sharp was not included in the top five television sellers.