Apparently it is Apple the party responsible, at least partially, for the large sum of money received from LG during the first quarter of this year: according to what is reported The Electhe payment it concerns patent matterslicenses and changes to the agreements that govern them.
To recap, in its first quarterly of the year LG said it had received a one-time payment of approximately $ 662 million without specifying the source; now the sources of the South Korean newspaper say that the vast majority of the figure, more or less 595 million dollars, comes from Cupertino. There is currently no information to help identify the second company responsible for the remaining approximately 57 million.
As we know, the great technological giants constantly patent dozens and dozens of inventions; many of them simply end up in oblivion, others are implemented in real products and services, still others are so effective that the competition is willing to pay to exploit them. It is therefore quite normal that among the various companies working in a sector there are so-called cross-licensing agreements: company A wants to exploit a certain quantity of patents of company B, company B another quantity of company A, the value of the two packages is determined and it is negotiated if one of the two has to pay something different to the other.
LG has pulled out of the smartphone industry (even if it has not completely closed with Android) for some time, after years of difficulty in establishing itself on the market. As a result, it no longer has to pay Apple for the licensing of whatever essential patents it holds, at least relating to smartphones. In short, the value of Apple’s patent package has decreased, so it was necessary an adjustment of the accounts, just saying. For the avoidance of doubt, the source reports that the South Korean company will continue to supply Apple components for its iPhones – mostly camera lenses and components (via LG Innotek) and OLED panels (via LG Display).
