Samsung Establishes IP Entity in Washington DC

Following the many court cases and litigation that Korean technology giant Samsung has been involved in, the company has announced their plans to fully establish an intellectual property firm. Samsung released information that they set up their Intellectual Keystone Technology (IKT) this last March. IKT’s offices are located in Washington D.C. and this group is designed to focus on patents and intellectual property.

The move to establish the $25 million dollar venture signals that Samsung is proactively working to be prepared for further litigation and will continue to pursue adequate protection of their patents. IKT is the first independent entity that works solely on patents and intellectual property. According to sources, IKT will focus predominantly on display technology and patents associated with LCD and OLED technologies. Analysts believe that this strategy to focus on a market that Samsung already has considerable advantages in will prove to be very beneficial to the Korean technology firm. Another positive implication of focusing on the display market is this business area typically produces sizeable revenue regardless of other market conditions.

If the establishment of IKT lives up to its potential and likely strategy of acquiring patents in display technology, there could be continued legal skirmishes in Samsung’s future. Intellectual Property and patent protection is an ever present storyline in news and business headlines around the globe. Large companies continue to acquire and develop patents that have potential to generate large streams of uninterrupted cash flow via royalties and licensing fees. In addition the revenue generated from licensing, there has been a great deal of legal battles that have resulted in large settlements or damage awards. It is clear that the importance of understanding an enterprise’s intellectual property while developing and protecting the IP is critical to continue to be competitive in today’s economy.