Earlier today, we reported that Huawei recently licensed some of its key 5G technologies to Samsung. Now, it is reported that Samsung has transferred some of its patents in the US to Huawei. It is reportedly a part of the cross-licensing deal between Huawei and the South Korean firm.
Samsung transferred 98 patents it has in the US to Huawei. In 2019, the South Korean firm transferred 81 patents to the Chinese firm. Now, the company has transferred a total of 179 patents. This is a part of the cross-licensing deal that the firms signed a few years ago to end their patent dispute. The patents transferred from Samsung to Huawei include the ones related to telecommunications, charging, smartphone cameras, and display technologies.
In such cross-licensing deals, sometimes, one company pays more to the other due to the number and quality of patents. The patent dispute between Huawei and Samsung started with telecommunications-related technologies, in which Huawei had more patents. In a similar case, Microsoft and Xiaomi had a cross-licensing deal, and the latter likely pays more as Microsoft has more patents.
Huawei, which was once Samsung's prime competitor, now sells smartphones mainly in China and some European countries due to the trade ban from the US as cybersecurity concerns mounted. Since the trade ban, Huawei has been trying to increase its revenue through patent licensing deals. It has signed a patent cross-licensing deal with OPPO and 19 other firms, including Samsung.
