LG seeks revenue from a huge copyright store

The Korea Times quoted an LG Electronics official as saying that they are studying ways to take advantage of the wireless patent. This will be an asset that contributes both in terms of revenue and future creation for the company. In July this year, the Korean electronics company will officially stop selling smartphones.

This does not mean that LG Electronics intends to transform into a “patent troll”. However, the company intends to take measures such as filing a court application to protect telecommunications patents. More specifically, it looks at a list of names that it believes are using its copyrights without a license. LG received damages from the infringer or signed an additional licensing agreement, thereby increasing revenue.

Earlier this month, a regional court in Germany ruled that Chinese consumer electronics maker TCL infringed on one of LG’s LTE patents.

In 2018, LG also filed three separate lawsuits in a German court, against French smartphone maker Wiko, for infringing on LTE standard patent (SEP) standards. A year later, the court ruled in favor of LG, but Wiko appealed.

In 2017, LG took legal action against US smartphone maker BLU when it filed a lawsuit in the courts of Delaware and the US International Trade Commission for violating five of its LTE SEPs. The lawsuit was closed a few months later because the BLU signed an agreement to pay royalties to LG.

Considering the above cases, LG is likely to continue its copyright lawsuits against global smartphone manufacturers that have not signed a licensing agreement with it. LG is likely to benefit from this because of the number of patents it holds. According to TechIPm, an intellectual property research and consulting firm, from 2012 to 2016, LG led the world in 4G SEP (LTE/LTE-A) category. Meanwhile, research firm IPlytics recently ranked LG third globally in the SEP 5G category with more than 3,700 patents.