Patent Sellout
Rockstar, a consortium jointly owned by Apple, Microsoft, Blackberry, Ericsson, and Sony, has withdrawn its lawsuits against companies that run the Android operating system, and has decided to sell a large number of patents.
According to overseas media outlets on Dec. 23 (local time), Rockstar has decided to sell its 4,000 patents to RPX Corp. for US$900 million (995 billion won). PRX specializes in preventing its partners from being embroiled in patent litigation.
Rockstar has also dropped its lawsuits against Android phone makers. Previously, the company bought Nortel's patents, and filed patent infringement lawsuits in the U.S. against Android phone manufacturers such as Google, Samsung, LG, HTC, and ZTE starting from late October. However, a mood of reconciliation was created in November when it reached an agreement with Google in the lawsuit between the two companies.
With Rockstar's move, patent wars between Apple and Android device makers are apparently going to end. Nonetheless, patent disputes between Apple and Samsung are still under way in the U.S.
Last August, the two tech giants agreed to drop all cases expect for those in the U.S. The two companies are involved in the cross-appeal of the first California case and a second patent infringement lawsuit.