Every story tagged Patent Litigation, curated for CIOs and IT leaders — ranked by source credibility, engagement, and freshness.
3 stories · open in the command center
A UK court ruling requiring Samsung to pay ZTE $392M for essential 5G network patents—with similar litigation pending across China, Germany, and Brazil—highlights growing intellectual property risks in telecommunications infrastructure that CIOs must address through comprehensive patent portfolio audits and licensing compliance reviews. This ruling signals that technology leaders cannot assume patent clearance across global markets, creating potential exposure for organizations deploying or integrating telecom-dependent systems and requiring IT to work closely with legal and procurement teams to map licensing obligations. The multi-jurisdictional nature of these suits demonstrates that IT infrastructure decisions carry significant financial and operational risk if intellectual property due diligence is inadequate.
A patent troll entity, Lepton Computing LLC, has filed a lawsuit seeking to ban Samsung's foldable phones (Galaxy Z Fold 3 and newer) for alleged infringement of nine patents covering core foldable phone technology such as app-swapping between screens and hinge design. While the patent claims appear broad enough to potentially impact Samsung's entire foldable portfolio, legal experts and analysts believe Lepton's case is weak due to its minimal operations (two employees), the patents' filing date in 2021 (after Samsung's 2019 foldable launch), and characteristics typical of non-practicing entities. This litigation underscores growing IP risks in emerging device categories and could set precedent for how foldable phone innovations are protected across the industry.
Apple has successfully defended its redesigned Apple Watch blood oxygen monitoring feature after the ITC closed Masimo's patent infringement case, allowing Apple to continue selling watches with the feature enabled in the US market. This resolution ends a multi-year legal battle that previously forced Apple to temporarily disable the feature and demonstrates the company's ability to engineer around patent disputes through technical redesign while maintaining product functionality. The case highlights the strategic importance of IP risk management and the potential for design-around solutions when facing patent challenges, though ongoing litigation risk remains as Masimo can still appeal.