Sony, Samsung Will Share Bulk Of Their Patents
TOKYO -- Sony Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co. said they agreed to share the bulk of their patents, in an unusual move that shows how changes in the electronics industry are pushing some rivals into closer cooperation.
The two giant electronics companies signed a cross-licensing agreement -- or agreement to use each others' patents free of charge or for a discounted fee -- that covers all technologies the companies deem basic, or roughly 90% of their vast patent holdings. In the U.S. alone, Sony, of Japan, holds about 13,000 patents while Samsung, of South Korea, holds about 11,000.
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The companies also agreed on specific technologies, such as some relating to Sony's PlayStation videogames or Samsung's home networking, that each considers vital to its competitive strategies, and therefore out of bounds. They also kept to themselves some important technologies in the growing market for flat-screen television sets.
The agreement, which lasts until 2008, lets two of the world's biggest electronics makers develop products in an increasingly crowded market without worrying about butting heads -- even as rivals are bogged down in litigation. It wasn't clear if the pact will pressure other companies to make similar moves.
Toshiba Corp. of Japan last month sued Hynix Semiconductor Inc., of South Korea, over memory-chip technology, while Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., of Japan, and South Korea's LG Electronics Inc. are embroiled in a plasma-patent dispute so fierce that they have managed to get each others' plasma panels banned from their home markets.
The Sony agreement with Samsung is an attempt to head off that kind of discord. "We wanted to get things decided clearly before we got into a really intense fight," said Yoshihide Nakamura, Sony's senior vice president in charge of intellectual property. A Samsung spokeswoman said Samsung executives weren't available to comment.
But the unusually broad scope of the agreement also highlights the changing way gadgets are made. Like most electronics companies, Sony previously had shared patents related only to single products or technologies. In the past, for example, Sony and Samsung had licensing agreements that covered video recorders, camcorders and television sets. That made sense because the technologies involved in each product were quite different.
Now consumer-electronics gadgets are increasingly built -- like computers -- atop a common set of digital building blocks, so such a piecemeal approach is fast becoming outdated and unwieldy, said Mr. Nakamura. "In the digital age, one patent might be used for video recorders as well as DVDs as well as TVs," he said.
The agreement also underscores the growing technological clout of Samsung, which only a decade ago was known as a low-cost copycat maker of TV sets, boom boxes and microwave ovens. For four of the past five years, Samsung has been among the top 10 in U.S. patent applications, and its knowhow in flat-panel manufacturing was a big reason Sony asked to collaborate with it in liquid-crystal displays last year.
That Sony chose Samsung for this patent-sharing arrangement shows how the South Korean electronics company is fast closing the gap with Japan's gadget king, people in the industry say.
"It's significant that Sony and Samsung are now at a close enough level that they can exchange this kind of agreement," said Masahiro Taguchi , director of research for the Institute of Intellectual Property, a Japanese center that studies intellectual-property issues.
In the U.S., most cross-licensing agreements don't raise antitrust problems as companies don't say they will be collaborating on product plans or prices. As a result, many companies with large patent portfolios routinely seeks cross-licensing accords, even with competitors.
索尼与三星将共享大部分专利
索尼(Sony Corp.)和三星电子(Samsung Electronics Co.)称，他们已经同意共享彼此的大部分专利，这一不同寻常的举动表明电子行业的变化促使一些竞争对手展开更密切的合作。
这两大电子业巨头签署了一份交叉授权协议－－双方可以免费或低价使用对方的版权，这个协议涵盖了这两家公司所认为的基本技术的全部，这相当于他们全部版权数目的大约90%。单在美国，索尼就拥有大约13,000项版权，三星有11,000项版权。
两公司还就某些具体技术达成一致，比如与索尼PlayStation视频游戏或三星的家庭网络有关的一些技术。他们将这些技术视为各自竞争战略的关键，因此没有进行共享。同样由于平面电视日益受到市场欢迎，他们也保留了一些与此相关的重要技术。
该份有效期截至2008年的协议让世界上两大电子产品生产商在日益拥挤的市场开发产品时无需担心产生纠纷－－即使对方陷入诉讼。目前尚不清楚该共享协议是否将促使其他公司迅速采取类似行动。
东芝(Toshiba Corp.)上月就内存技术起诉Hynix Semiconductor Inc.。日本松下电器产业公司(Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.)和韩国的LG电子(LG Electronics Inc.)卷入一场激烈的等离子体专利纠纷，现在两家公司已经设法阻拦了对方等离子面板在本国市场的销售。
索尼称，与三星的协议是防止此类纠纷的一个举措。索尼负责知识产权的资深副总裁Yoshihide Nakamura说，“我们希望在卷入一场激战之前，明确有关的事宜。”三星发言人称，其高层人员无法发表评论。
但是该协议范围如此之广非同寻常，这也凸现出电子设备的制造方式已经发生了改变。像大多数电子产品公司一样，索尼此前只将单个产品的专利或技术与其他公司共享。例如，过去索尼和三星曾就录像机、摄像机和电视签订授权协议。这自有道理，因为每个产品涉及的技术截然不同。
Nakamura说，现在诸如电脑之类的消费电子产品正越来越多的使用同一套数字模块，因此单个产品的协议很快变得不合时宜和难以操作。他说，“在数字时代，一项专利可以既在录像机上使用，也可以在DVD和电视上使用。”
该协议还凸现了三星不断增强的技术实力，仅在10年前，三星还是一家名不见经传的小公司，复制并生产电视机、轻便收录机和微波炉。在过去五年当中，三星有四年位于美国申请专利数量最多的10家公司之列，其掌握的平板显示器制造技术是索尼去年要求与其就液晶显示器进行合作的一个主要原因。
业内人士称，索尼选择三星签订此专利共享协议显示，这家韩国电子公司正迅速缩小与日本电子巨头的差距。
Institute of Intellectual Property的研究经理Masahiro Taguchi说，“索尼和三星现在水平非常接近因而得以签订此类协议，这具有重要意义。”Institute of Intellectual Property是研究知识产权问题的一个日本机构。
