TU Media settles royalty dispute with Toshiba

Jon · Korean Citizen Joined: Mar 19, 2004 Posts: 509

TU Media, the local consortium for satellite-based mobile broadcasting, settled its dispute with Japan's Toshiba Corp. over royalty patent issues, company officials said yesterday.
In a letter sent to the Telecommunications Technology Association, the Japanese high-tech firm said it would take a fixed-amount approach on the royalties charged on equipment and products using its patent technology for satellite reception.

"We hear Korean companies that manufacture and sell products using our patents desire the fixed amount royalty per end product, so we changed our approach. The royalty or license fees charged in Korea will be comparable and nondiscriminatory compared to those charged in Japan," said Taisuke Kato, general manager of Toshiba's intellectual property division.

Toshiba had been previously demanding a 2 percent royalty on the selling price of each product, drawing objections from Korean handset makers who feared royalty payments would increase in the future following the development of high-end satellite phones.

Toshiba owns the patents to the System E technology, which is the standard for satellite-based mobile broadcasting in Korea and Japan.

"We overcame a roadblock by ironing out our differences with Toshiba over the patent royalty issue and we will now focus on winning the license for the satellite mobile broadcasting services," said Bae Joon-dong, executive vice president of TU Media, in a statement.

Satellite-based mobile broadcasting, or satellite DMB, is designed to provide television and radio programs to mobile phones, laptop computers and other devices via satellite transmission.

TU Media, 30 percent owned by the country's largest mobile-phone operator SK Telecom, expects to handle the satellite services and provide them to the country's three mobile-phone operators starting in September.

TU Media will likely be the only Korean company to apply for the license for the satellite DMB business when the Korean Broadcasting Commission makes the final decision in August.

(thkim@heraldm.com)

By Kim Tong-hyung