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Seoul/Tokyo (pte042/14.12.2004/15:00) - Asian electronics giants Samsung http://www.samsung.com and Sony http://www.sony.net want to share patents across major product lines in the area of electronic technologies in the future. According to a joint press release by both companies today, Tuesday, a cross-license agreement has already been signed. According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the agreement applies to 11,000 patents of Samsung and 13,000 patents of Sony.
"To enable greater business growth through efficient product development, the agreement licenses those patents which are considered to be the basic technologies necessary for product development, such as basic semiconductor and industry standard technologies," the statement by Samsung and Sony said. However, the agreement will not include patents that "foster the uniqueness of each company and healthy competition in the market", like Sony's playstation architecture and Samsung's home networking technology.
The agreement also does not apply to TFT-LCD and Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) display patents. Sony and Samsung have been working together in this sector since July of this year. Both companies operate a joint venture together, which will make large-sized LCD panels for televisions. It is also building a seventh-generation TFT-LCD line and is scheduled to mass produce panels in the first half of 2005.
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