BARCELONA, SPAIN, July 19, 2011 – With its favorable $23 million verdict last month in a patent infringement case against Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Fractus, S.A. has shown, once again, that the licensing strategy it has been pursuing for years is now paying off. Fractus will not stand by while some of the largest players in the global tech sector take advantage of the company’s patented technology without providing fair compensation.
In bringing several years of litigation to a close and executing a new licensing strategy, Fractus is now positioned to become the world leader in its field.
Based in Barcelona, Spain, Fractus is a major manufacturer and licenser of internal antennas for wireless devices ranging from mobile phones and short range wireless to infrastructure and defense related products. Pick up a cell phone, for instance, and the chance you are holding a Fractus product in your hand – its antenna, which relies on patented Fractus antenna technologies – is high.
In 2009, Fractus sued ten cell phone manufacturers for infringing on nine distinct U.S. patents it holds relating to multiband internal cell phone antennas. Sanyo Electric Co., LG Electronics, Research in Motion, Pantech Co., Palm Inc., Sharp Corp. and UTStarcom Inc. entered into what collectively amounted to tens of millions of dollars in settlements with the company. Samsung, however, held out and the case went to trial in Texas federal district court, where a jury found in favor of Fractus.
“The superb outcome in the Samsung case serves as a major milestone in our efforts to protect the valuable technology our company has developed and brought to industry,” said Rubén Bonet, President and CEO of Fractus. “We hope this will trigger the next phase of licensing our patents and technology to companies all over the world.”
In 2010, Fractus entered into its first significant patent license agreement with an American company, securing a non-exclusive, worldwide deal with Motorola, Inc.
“Fractus is the real thing, a true innovator in the area of wireless system design. The company’s antenna inventions has changed the face of mobile phone design, supporting the elimination of the external antenna and extending the ability of mobile phones to support communication on multiple bands,” said Ron Epstein, CEO of Epicenter IP. “The value of that innovation is confirmed by Fractus’ dominant patent portfolio in a key handset function, an asset that will allow Fractus to capture the full value of its inventiveness.”
Fractus currently holds more than 200 patents and patent applications worldwide, more than 90 patents granted all over the world, including more than 50 in the United States (some of which include patent numbers 7,015,868; 7,123,208; 7,148,850; 7,202,822; 7,312,762; 7,394,432; 7,397,431; 7,411,556; and 7,528,782).
ABOUT FRACTUS, S.A.
Fractus is an early pioneer in developing internal antennas for cellular phones and other industries. In 1995, Fractus CTO Dr. Charles Puente filed the world’s first application for a patent on Fractal antennas for mobile telecommunications. Four years later, in 1999, Fractus was born. The company set out to meet the challenge of delivering antennas small enough to fit inside a cell phone yet powerful enough to support today’s multiband phones. Today, Fractus holds an Intellectual Property Rights portfolio of more than 50 inventions protected through more than 200 patents and patent applications in the US, Europe and Asia, and has shipped more than 25 million units worldwide Among the numerous awards and honors the company has received for its innovative work, Fractus has been named a 2005 Davos World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer and one of Red Herring’s top innovative companies for 2006. It has also won the 2004 Frost & Sullivan award for technological innovation and the 2007 Elektra European Electronics Industry R&D Award.
