Samsung Reinforcing R&D to Cope with Litigation Risks
Unified Patents said on Jan. 5 that Google, Microsoft and Samsung faced 42, 39 and 36 patent lawsuits in the United States in 2020, respectively. It also said that the 36 lawsuits of Samsung are ongoing suits and the number is close to 60 when dropped charges and peaceful terminations are included in the calculation.
Most of the 60 or so lawsuits are related to the key products and technologies of Samsung, including semiconductor, smartphone, wireless communications and display. The suits were filed by multiple non-practicing entities (NPEs) as well as well-known enterprises such as JOLED and Divx.
According to Unified Patents’ recent report, Samsung is the enterprise that filed the largest number, 121 in total, of patent invalidation requests with the Patent Trial and Appeal Board of the United States Patent and Trademark Office in 2020. The number is 95 for Apple and 58 for Google.
At present, Samsung is further reinforcing its patent portfolio by even more R&D in order to cope with litigation risks from NPEs. As of the end of the third quarter of 2020, the company owned a total of 194,600 patents worldwide, including 77,000 or so U.S. patents.