Samsung has announced to enter into a patent cross-licensing agreement with IBM. Although specific terms and conditions are not disclosed, the agreement will allow both the companies to gain access to each other’s patent portfolio that can be used by them to develop new products.

This licensing agreement will help both companies expedite innovation and achieve business growth by providing each company access to the other’s patents for basic technologies. We also hope the agreement will open new opportunities for wider collaboration between two of the leading innovators in the technology industry.

IBM and Samsung are rated as the world’s top two inventive companies with both companies having the highest number of U.S. patents.

Last month, Samsung and IBM also joined hands to research and develop semiconductor to be used in next-gen products.

Applied Materials has announced to have entered into a settlement agreement with Samsung Electronics over its misappropriation and misuse of Samsung’s confidential semiconductor information.

Under the agreement, there will be a resolution of potential civil claims and litigation between both the companies and will enable Samsung to get discounts for products purchased from Applied Materials.

The agreement, which is valid for three years, will give Samsung volume-based rebates on purchases of semiconductor products whereas volume-based incentives for production of semiconductor devices in applications for which Samsung has not previously used Applied systems and for joint development activities. Samsung will also get volume-based credits on certain upgrades, engineering services and spare parts.

Samsung has entered into a licensing agreement with Intellectual Ventures. With this agreement, Samsung will get access to Intellectual Ventures’ more than 30,000 IPs spanning across various technology areas that will be critical to Samsung’s business.

Consistent with Samsung’s commitment to innovation in its products and services offered to its customers worldwide, Samsung is pleased with the long-term agreement with Intellectual Ventures, which grants Samsung access to a broad and comprehensive IP portfolio under terms attractive to Samsung.

Last week, Samsung and Qualcomm entered into an agreement that will allow the Korean giant to use Qualcomm’s telecommunication related patents. The deal is said to be greatly favoring Samsung as they’ll use Qualcomm’s patents for a period of 15 years while paying $1.3 billion upfront plus cheap royalties. Samsung spokesperson has confirmed the reduced royalties but did not disclose the intrinsic details of the agreement.

Royalty payment conditions have improved, but we agreed to keep the deal secret, so I can’t say how much of a discount we’re getting.

Samsung and SanDisk have announced their renewal of NAND flash memory license agreement. Though both the companies haven’t revealed the intrinsic agreement details, Samsung will have an upper hand as they’ll pay half the royalty amount that they pay currently.

Samsung is the largest NAND flash memory maker and pays almost $350 million in royalties to SanDisk who holds the patent rights. The 7-year agreement will come into effect from August 14, 2009 after the expiry of the current agreement.

Samsung’s better deal could be attributed to SanDisk’s reducing profits as well as the bleak economy.

The Korean company had offered to buy SanDisk last year, but the latter turned down the offer by claiming that the deal undervalued the company.

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