Ericsson sues Samsung for un-FRANDliness Ericsson has filed a patent suit against Samsung in the US alleging that the Korean firm has refused to renew a licence to use some of its technology on the same terms other companies have accepted. The Swedish firm must have been feeling left out of the Great Patent Wars, because it filed two suits against Sammy in Texas, one …
Some patent licenses (e.g. MPEG-LA) have explicit terms limiting future price rises. In the absence of such contractual agreements only the FRAND commitment would apply. As with any license/contract that will expire you need an alternative option to at least threaten at the expiry or you will end up negotiating from a very weak position
It is a interesting question what the FRAND commitments are worth, I believe that they should be pretty strong but Samsung is arguing opposite directions in different cases.
Alas, Ericsson chose to file in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, which is notorious for being the preferred destination of patent trolls as it (nearly) always rules in favour of the plaintiff. This, unfortunately, is not a court from which one can reasonably expect «genuine information» ; while Ericsson's US lawyers may feel that suing in this particular venue was a brilliant move which guarantees (initial) success, from a publicity point of view it seems more akin to a self-goal, at least for those familiar with the court....
Henri
Well spotted mhenriday!
If your intention is to merely harass someone (you don't expect to win in the long run but pissing them about will cause some serious damage to their business that you wont have to may for) then the place you would start would be east texas.
If you thought your were in the right you would start in a real court so the case would be over sooner.
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