Wall Street Journal | February 8, 2011 | Matt Jarzemsky
International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) and Samsung Electronics Co. (005930.SE, SSNHY) have agreed to license their respective patent portfolios to each other.
The companies said the sharing of their intellectual property “reinforces their ability to provide better products and services, while maintaining their competitiveness.” IBM has been the leading recipient of U.S. patents for 18 straight years while Samsung was No. 2 last year.
Specific terms and conditions of the agreement weren’t disclosed.
The deal follows Samsung recently joining IBM in advanced research driving miniaturization in semiconductors, which involves deciding what kinds of tiny structures to build into chips, what materials will be needed to create them and what new tools will be required. Creating smaller chip features brings big benefits but comes with heavy initial costs. A small pool of players compete in the field.
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