Samsung to pay 1.3 billion US dollars for Qualcomm patents

While some companies make their way to the top using others' achievements, there are still ones that are willing to pay for patent licenses without mumbling too much. Like Samsung who have just signed an agreement with Qualcomm, according to which the Korean company will have to pay a fortune for some patents owned by Qualcomm.

That happens just a few weeks after we've found out that Nokia decided to sue Apple for not paying a dime for a dozen of Nokia-owned patents (including ones related to GSM, UMTS and WLAN). Word on the street is that Nokia might get up to billion and a half US dollars if Apple is proven guilty.

Samsung agreed to pay the CDMA patent holder (read: Qualcomm) nearly the same amount, namely 1.3 billion US dollars, in order to get Qualcomm's permission to use its CDMA, WCDMA and OFDMA patents.

That sounds like a fortune and it actually is: that makes approximately 80% of the 2009 net income of Qualcomm (good 1.59 billion US dollars). But as it turns out, this deal is a steal: the fees depend on company and market area, however, Samsung managed to get the lowest price.

Anyway, this is just the amount which is about to be paid in advance and there will be some additional royalties for the next 15 years, but they were not disclosed.

Source