PACid Technologies that filed a lawsuit worth $3.51 billion (4 trillion KRW) against Samsung Electronics back in April regarding infringement of its biometrics authentication. It seems that this case will be settled with Samsung Electronics paying PACid Technologies small amount of settlement. It is confirmed that United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, which was responsible for this case, also announced a verdict that notified settlement between two businesses privately.
According to the sentencing that was obtained by The Electronics Times, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas sent agreements to both businesses and posted an agreement in writing inside of its administration department. Amount of settlement is not known. PACid, which is known as a NPE (Non-Practicing Entity), is planning to withdraw its suit as it settles with Samsung Electronics.
“It is true that we settled with PACid regarding patent infringement.” said a representative for Samsung Electronics. “Although we cannot disclose the amount of settlement, it is somewhat small amount.”
PACid claimed that Samsung Electronics infringed two of its patents and one South Korean patent regarding every biometric (fingerprint, iris, face) technology that was applied to Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy S6, S7, and S8. This was a first patent lawsuit against a Smartphone manufacturer regarding biometric authentication.
After verifying results, PACid also filed more than 20 patent lawsuits against other Smartphone manufacturers such as Apple. It is understood that PACid basically filed these lawsuits to make profits off of settlements.
Lawsuits were carried out by PACid Technologies and PACid Group. Although patents and name of companies that were filed against Samsung Electronics and Apple were different, it can be assumed that they were filed by a same business group.
“After looking at a document posted by United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, it is true that Samsung Electronics and PACid came to an agreement.” said an American patent attorney. “However, we are not sure how much Samsung Electronics paid PACid Technologies for settlement.”
Just like a patent lawsuit against Apple, PACid had been preparing amount of compensation for damage compared to global sales volumes of Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, S7, S7 Edge, S8, and S8 Edge.
If they could not come to an agreement and PACid’s claim was accepted, Samsung Electronics had to compensate up to 3 dollars per Smartphone.
Just like a past lawsuit against Apple, United States Court does not show favoritism on Samsung Electronics. It is heard that Samsung Electronics had made a quick response against PACid’s lawsuit after considering the fact that it would not receive favorable responses from an United States Court.
According to United States’ Patent Law (Article 284), a company can be punished if it is notified of patent infringement and does not take any action. It can be fined up to more than 3 times.
Although Samsung Electronics avoided a lawsuit battle, it is expected that battles surrounding patents on biometric authentication will continue to take places globally. It is heard that patent trolls are preparing lawsuits against global companies that are part of FIDO Alliance.
Staff Reporter Gil, Jaeshik | osolgil@etnews.com & Staff Reporter Choi, Jaepil | jpchoi@etnews.com & Staff Reporter Ham, Jihyun | goham@etnews.com