SAMSUNG FINED $7.3Mln IN CHINA PATENT CASE

[Anonymous]

http://uk.reuters.com/article/technology-media-telco-SP/idUKPEK28501620081223
Samsung fined $7.3 mln in China patent case
BEIJING,jan
09- South Korea’s Samsung Electronics has been ordered to pay 50
million yuan ($7.3 million) to a Chinese company for infringing its
dual-mode cellphone patent, Xinhua news agency reported.Samsung was
sued by Holley Communications, a company based in China’s eastern
Zhejiang province, in April last year for violating a patented
technology allowing cellphones to operate on both CDMA and GSM
networks, Xinhua said.

The Intermediate People’s Court of
Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang, made the ruling on Saturday. The fine
was a record pay-out for China’s cellphone industry, Xinhua
said”Samsung has sold more than 700,000 cellphones that contain
Holley’s patented technologies. The patents are still on sale. The
compensation is only part of the sales,” the agency quoted Ge Chen,
Holley’s executive director as saying.Ge said the patent for the
technology and equipment was obtained in 2002. Holley officials said
they would seek more compensation, Xinhua said.A spokesman for Samsung
in Seoul said the company had not been notified of any official
decision, but may appeal.

Samsung last month was hit by two
separate sets of lawsuits for infringing patented technologies from
Eastman Kodak  and Spansion SPSN.0.Spansion accused Samsung of
infringing its technology for flash memory, while Kodak accused the
South Korean company along with LG Electronics of infringing its
patents for digital cameras

[Author]

January 21, 2009 at 11:53 AM