Microsoft has filed a lawsuit against Samsung over royalties dispute
Samsung is, once again, being sued by a major tech company, and this time it isn’t Apple. Microsoft announced earlier today that it is suing Samsung for threatening to stop paying royalties to Microsoft for patents behind the Android operating system.
The two companies reached a deal in September 2011 to cross-license each other’s patent portfolios. Samsung ended up paying massive amounts or royalties to Microsoft on numerous patents. Microsoft says more than 25 companies are licensing there patents – including Samsung, Acer, and ZTE – which means that Microsoft gets paid royalties for roughly 80% of the Android-powered smartphones sold in the United States.
According to Microsoft’s deputy general counsel, Samsung decided to breach its contract after Microsoft announced that it was acquiring Nokia’s mobile business. After having refuse to pay royalties in the second year of the deal initially, Samsung eventually made a late payment in November that didn’t include added interest.
The complaint that Microsoft filed in federal court in New York also alleges that Samsung asked competition authorities in South Korea to change the contract in order to reduce or eliminate the payments it had to make to Microsoft. Samsung said in a statement, “We will review the complaint in detail and determine appropriate measures in response.”
Read more about the story at PCWorld.
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