It looks that a burdensome financial issue is knocking at the door of Samsung. A federal jury in the Eastern District of Texas ordered the tech giant to pay a massive $117.7 million in damages to Japanese technology firm Maxell. The jury found Samsung guilty for using multitudinous patented technologies of Maxell in some of its hugely popular products, including smartphones, tablets, and smart home devices.
This dispute did not just come to being yesterday; the genesis of this litigation may be traced back to the events of September 2023, when Maxell first accused Samsung of infringing seven of its patents. Maxell claimed that Samsung used those patented technologies in its SmartThings stations, its laptops, its smartphones, and various other home electronics without a valid license. The patents in question are not such trivial patents; they in fact allegedly confer fundamental software and hardware elements, such as designs for user interfaces, methods of data processing, and image reproduction.
Interestingly, those patents were ancient. They were licensed back in 2011, at which time Samsung had actually negotiated a 10-year licensing contract with Hitachi Consumer Electronics, Maxell's predecessor, for the use of certain technologies. That agreement, however, expired in 2021. Maxell claims that even after the expiration of the license, Samsung continued to use patented technology and that, despite their efforts at promoting a new licensing arrangement with Maxell, the South Korean tech giant showed little interest in that proposition.
Maxell didn't bother limiting its legal actions to the United States for the alleged infringement as they have also been filing cases in Germany, Japan, and before the U.S. International Trade Commission. It seems that Maxell is determined, for they filed one more lawsuit with similar accusations in Texas in April 2025, increasing the legal pressures on Samsung even further.
So, what is Samsung saying about all this? Well, Samsung is fighting back. They say they do not consider this latest decision to be final and have plans to appeal. So the legal battle is far from over and should stay in the limelight for some time.
The case serves to remind everyone of just how expensive intellectual property disputes can be, particularly in the tech sphere, for major players. All eyes will be watching to see how this affects Samsung and how things go for the appeals process.
