What you need to know
- LG may be considering licensing thousands of patents left behind by its dead smartphone business.
- The company owns around 20,000 patents related to wireless technology, such as 5G.
- It will reportedly form a spin-off company that will handle those patents and license them to smartphone brands.
LG's smartphone business might not be totally extinct yet, sort of. The South Korean firm, which was previously known for its quirky smartphone designs (read: LG Wing) is reportedly licensing thousands of patents related to 5G and other wireless technologies.
As per The Elec, LG is considering licensing some of the approximately 20,000 patents it obtained prior to shutting down its mobile brand. The company is said to be forming a spin-off company that will handle its licensing deals with various smartphone brands (via Digital Trends).
LG might also sell some of those patents to companies that may be interested in them. A few months after LG's exit from smartphones, Samsung was reportedly eyeing LG's 5G patent portfolio.
It remains to be seen whether the companies that previously showed interest in LG's patents would still want to acquire them.
With the company's smartphone business no longer in operation, it wouldn't hurt to share some of those technologies with its former competitors. The decision was allegedly motivated by the high cost of maintaining those patents, which is estimated to be around 20 billion won ($16,166,000) per year.
If the report is correct, LG will be following in the footsteps of Nokia, which abandoned its smartphone business. Both companies struggled to compete with the best Android phones on the market, including those from Samsung.
LG already licenses some of its patents related to cellular technologies and automotive components through Avanci, an independent intermediary.
However, with LG now focusing on smart home products, the company is likely to retain a number of patents that it may find useful in the future.
