It's been a tough year for Samsung beyond having their top executive being found guilty in a corruption scandal. To start the year off Patently Apple posted a report titled "Reality Strikes Samsung as Smartphone Sales Drop to Lowest Level since 2011." A Telegraph report had shown that Samsung's smartphones fell to a five year low. Hopes were that the new Galaxy S8 would correct their woes but the Korea Herald reported in early July that S8 sales were down a whopping 20% in contrast to their S7 2016 model. By late July Patently Apple posted a report titled "While Apple is Still Holding on to Fifth Spot in China, Samsung has fallen from Grace with a Paltry 3% Market Share." The Nikkei Asian Review posted a report just yesterday titled "Samsung and Lenovo stumble in China's smartphone market."

In addition to falling smartphone sales, Qualcomm announced that they were switching to TSMC for certain 7nm processors and today we've learned that Samsung is being sued for patent infringement by Tessera, a subsidiary of Xperi Corporation.

Officially Tessera Technologies, Inc. ("Tessera") and certain of its subsidiaries filed legal proceedings today against Samsung Electronics, Co., Ltd. ("Samsung") and certain of its affiliates, alleging infringement of 24 patents that cover a wide range of semiconductor processing, bonding, and packaging technologies, as well as imaging technologies.

The legal proceedings were filed in the U.S. International Trade Commission, three U.S. federal district courts, and certain international jurisdictions, alleging infringement by Samsung's semiconductor products, its Galaxy S6, S7, S8, and Note 8 smartphones, and other products.

"Samsung has benefited from its use of our semiconductor technologies for 20 years, having entered into its first license with Tessera, Inc. in 1997.

Samsung has also been a customer of our FotoNation imaging technologies, and has expressed interest in certain of our other solutions. Samsung's most recent semiconductor patent license expired in December 2016, but we believe it is continuing to use our patented technologies without authorization, and without paying us fair compensation," said Jon Kirchner, the Company's CEO.

"We diligently tried to work through our differences with Samsung over an extended period of time, and while we remain in dialogue, unfortunately at this point the parties have not been able to come to an agreement."

"Although we always prefer to reach negotiated license agreements, Samsung has left us with no choice but to defend our intellectual property rights through these legal actions," Kirchner added. "We are confident in the breadth and quality of the proceedings we initiated today and we strongly believe these actions are in the best interests of the Company, our other licensees, and our shareholders."

The Company's affiliates filed a Total of 10 Legal Proceedings

Tessera Advanced Technologies, Inc. ("TATI") filed a complaint against Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Samsung Electronics America, Inc., and Samsung Semiconductor, Inc. with the U.S. International Trade Commission, and a corresponding complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, alleging infringement of two patents relating to "wafer level packaging" semiconductor technologies. The patents at issue are U.S. Patent Nos. 6,954,001 and 6,784,557.

Invensas Bonding Technologies, Inc. (formerly Ziptronix, Inc.) filed an action against Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. and Samsung Electronics America, Inc. in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, alleging infringement of six patents relating to the Company's semiconductor bonding technologies. The patents at issue are U.S. Patent Nos. 7,553,744; 7,807,549; 7,871,898; 8,153,505; 9,391,143; and 9,431,368.

Invensas Corporation ("Invensas") filed an action against Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. and Samsung Austin Semiconductor, LLC in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, alleging infringement of two patents relating to semiconductor processing technologies. The patents at issue are U.S. Patent Nos. 6,849,946 and 6,232,231.

FotoNation Limited and DigitalOptics Corporation MEMS filed an action against Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. and Samsung Electronics America, Inc. in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, alleging infringement of eight patents relating to imaging technologies. The patents at issue are 8,254,674; 8,331,715; 7,860,274; 7,697,829; 7,574,016; 7,620,218; 7,916,897; and 8,908,932.

Invensas filed an action against Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. and Samsung Electronics America, Inc. in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, alleging infringement of five patents relating to semiconductor processing and ball grid array packaging technologies. The patents at issue are 6,849,946; 6,232,231; 6,054,336; 6,566,167; and 6,825,554.

TATI filed an action against Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. and Samsung Electronics America, Inc. in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, alleging infringement of two patents relating to wafer level packaging: U.S. Patent Nos. 6,512,298 and 6,852,616.

Invensas filed two actions in the Regional Court of Mannheim, Germany, one against Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. and another against Samsung Electronics GmbH, alleging infringement of the German designation of European Patent No. EP 1 186 034 B1 ("EP '034 patent"). The EP '034 patent relates to a patented semiconductor interconnect technology.

Invensas also filed an action in the District Court of The Hague, Netherlands, against Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Samsung Electronics Benelux B.V., Samsung Electronics Europe Logistics B.V., and two of Samsung's European distributors, Bol.com B.V. and Wehkamp B.V., alleging infringement of the same EP '034 patent.

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