LG and Sony have decided to end their nearly year long patent battle. Each company has dropped their respective lawsuits and the two have decided on some sort of "cross-licensing deal". The details of said deal have not been disclosed by either company.
Reuters reported that an LG spokesperson came to them with the "cross-licensing" news. This bitter battle between Sony and LG dates back nearly a year when Sony attempted to block sales of LG smart phones in the US. Sony filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission, claiming that LG was violating numerous patents.
LG was obviously upset by Sony's complaint and retaliated by requesting the ITC ban Sony from selling the PS3 in the U.S. LG claimed Sony violated their patents related to Blu-ray technology in the device.
Neither Sony nor LG was successful in banning any devices of the other company in the U.S. LG did manage to get a 10 day ban on the sale of the PS3 in the Netherlands but that's hardly a big win in the grand scheme of things.
Sony has opted not to comment regarding this deal but they did confirm that lawsuits have been dropped and the two companies have reached an agreement. It's nice to see one of these nasty lawsuits settled, but there are still many more left unfinished involving companies like Apple, Samsung, HTC, Google, and other large tech companies vehemently defending their patents.
