Sony, Samsung reach unique deal to stop lawsuits

The Financial Times reports barely a month went by last year without some legal action by a Japanese electronics manufacturer, mostly against competitors in South Korea and Taiwan. But now Sony has announced it has agreed to a broad cross-licensing agreement with South Korea\'s Samsung, one of its most formidable foreign rivals. In terms of the agreement, Sony and Samsung will cross-licence ‘those patents that are considered to be the basic technologies necessary for product development’. On the other hand, they will not share technologies considered essential to differentiating their products from those of their competitors. However, there has been mixed reaction to the deal, with few of Sony\'s Japanese competitors wanting to follow its example. Other Japanese companies dismiss the agreement as impractical, if not ‘strange’. Full report in the Financial Times