Bluetooth patent infringement cost Samsung 13.75 million euros in damages to Rembrandt Wireless.
Big companies like Microsoft, Apple, Samsung, and Google have always been fighting over technology, and when they're not at war with each other, they're trying to accumulate as many patents as possible that will give them even the slightest advantage over their rivals.
However, in the last two years, these companies understood that there was an even bigger threat out there claiming their money for infringement on various technologies: patent trolls.
These companies do not innovate or discover new technologies, but rather buy patents from other companies that innovate, in the hope that they will benefit from them in the future.
Something similar happened in the last couple of months, when a company called Rembrandt Wireless sued Samsung for infringing on one of its patents related to Bluetooth.
The plaintiff company asked the court for more than $31.9 million (€28 million) in damages, which is a huge amount compared to the benefits that Samsung's technology offers to users.
This is probably one of the reasons why the US District Court ruled that Samsung should only pay Rembrandt Wireless $15.7 million (€13.75 million) in damages.
According to Rembrandt Wireless, Samsung infringed on a patent related to a “system and method of communication using at least two modulation methods.”.
The plaintiff alleges that Samsung infringed one or more of its patents by making, using, selling or offering for sale Bluetooth EDR devices, which it claims are “the heart” of the patented technology at issue in the lawsuit.
Samsung has apparently denied these claims, but it has not been able to prove that Rembrandt's patents are invalid. As the South Korean company points out, around 24,000 companies believe that Bluetooth technology should be shared, but "obviously, Rembrandt is not participating in this and is exploiting it.".
