Mosaid, Samsung settle terms of patent licenses

LONDON — Memory IP provider Mosaid Technologies Inc. (Ottawa, Canada) has said it has agreed semiconductor patent license terms with Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. Mosaid has been pursuing a number of leading chip companies to licnense its patents.

Under the terms of this agreement Mosaid will purchase a significant portfolio of patents from Samsung and Samsung will license patents from Mosaid. In addition, the two companies have agreed to develop NAND Flash memory incorporating Mosaid's HLNAND architecture. Payments are due on both sets of licenses but the amounts were disclosed.

Samsung receives a lives-of-patents license for certain patents and applications, and a five-year term license for certain other patents and applications for both memory and non-memory integrated circuit products.

For the licenses, Samsung will make a series of fixed payments during the term. The effective date of the license is January 1, 2010. At the same time Mosaid will have to pay for its patent purchases related to semiconductor device, circuit and processing technologies and a series of fixed payments related to these is due to Samsung in 2014.

"Taken together, these agreements with Samsung are among the most important the company has signed in its history," said John Lindgren, president and CEO of Mosaid, in a statement.

"In addition to licensing our memory patents, Samsung is the second company to license our microcomponent portfolio, which includes both Mosaid patents and patents exclusively licensed from third parties," said Michael Vladescu, vice president, licensing and intellectual property, in the same statement.

Related links and articles:

www.mosaid.com

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