마이크로소프트, 삼성을 상대로 안드로이드 운영체제 로열티 관련 소송제기

8월 1일 금요일, 마이크로소프트가 미국 뉴욕 남부지방 연방 법원에 삼성전자가 안드로이드 운영 체제 관련된 특허 사용을 위반했다고 주장하며 소송을 제기했다.

 

2011년에 삼성전자와 계약했던 로열티 관련된 협의가 Microsoft 사가 Nokia 의 휴대전화 사업 인수 후에도 적용되는지에 대한 여부에 대한 판단 요청삼성이 한동안 내지 않았던 로열티를 한번에 지급하면서 이자를 주지 않았던 점을 중점으로 하고있다.

 

이에 대해 MS 는 블로그에서 '삼성과 이 문제를 해결하기 위해 일정 기간동안 협상을 진행하였으나 제대로 이루어지지가 않았으며 서로의 계약에 대한 다른 입장을 분명히 했다' 고 밝혔다.

 

이하는 MS 의 부사장이자 법률 부문 임원 David Howard 가 블로그에 관련된 내용을 적은 전문이다.

 

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As you may have seen, on Friday Microsoft filed legal action against Samsung in U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York. Today’s legal action is simply to enforce our contract with Samsung.

We don’t take lightly filing a legal action, especially against a company with which we’ve enjoyed a long and productive partnership. Unfortunately, even partners sometimes disagree. After spending months trying to resolve our disagreement, Samsung has made clear in a series of letters and discussions that we have a fundamental disagreement as to the meaning of our contract.

Samsung and Microsoft are both large and sophisticated companies. In 2011, after months of painstaking negotiation, Samsungvoluntarily entered into a legally binding contract with Microsoft to cross-license IP – an agreement which has been extremely beneficial for both parties. Samsung had been complying with the contract and paying to use Microsoft’s IP.

So what changed? Since Samsung entered into the agreement, its smartphone sales have quadrupled and it is now the leading worldwide player in the smartphone market. Consider this: when Samsung entered into the agreement in 2011, it shipped 82 million Android smartphones. Just three years later, it shipped 314 million Android smartphones. [Source: IDC, WW Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker – 2014 Q1, Published: May 2014] Samsung predicted it would be successful, but no one imagined their Android smartphone sales would increase this much.

After becoming the leading player in the worldwide smartphone market, Samsung decided late last year to stop complying with its agreement with Microsoft. In September 2013, after Microsoft announced it was acquiring the Nokia Devices and Services business, Samsung began using the acquisition as an excuse to breach its contract. Curiously, Samsung did not ask the court to decide whether the Nokia acquisition invalidated its contract with Microsoft, likely because it knew its position was meritless.

Microsoft and Samsung have a long history of collaboration. Microsoft values and respects our partnership with Samsung and expects it to continue. We are simply asking the Court to settle our disagreement, and we are confident the contract will be enforced.

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* 출처 (Reference) : 

 

마이크로소프트, 삼성 상대 안드로이드 로열티 소송(종합)

http://m.yna.co.kr/kr/contents/?cid=AKR20140802009251091&site=2400000000

 

 

Howard, D. (2014) Microsoft's Samsung action, Available at:http://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2014/08/01/microsofts-samsung-action/(Accessed: 2nd August, 2014).