Samsung loses lawsuit

Samsung Electronics Co has been ordered to pay 50 million yuan to a company in East China's Zhejiang province for infringing the latter's dual-mode cellphone patent, Xinhua reported.

The Intermediate People's Court of Hangzhou made the ruling.

Zhejiang-based Holley Communications alleged last year that cellphones made by Sumsung violated its patent that allowed cellphones to operate on both CDMA and GSM networks.

"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," Ge Chen, Holley's executive director, told Xinhua.

The patent of CDMA/GSM double-mode mobile communication method and its communication equipment was obtained in 2002, Xinhua reported.

This has been the largest compensation in China's cellphone industry, but officials of Holley said they would seek additional compensation.

The 20-month patent dispute started when Holley filed the lawsuit in April 2007 calling for a halt of the violation and seeking compensation.

A month later, Sumsung requested that China's State Intellectual Property Office declare that the patent was invalid. The court opened the session in May this year after the SIPO declared it valid.

(Source: China Daily)

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