Even though Samsung's Exynos chipsets are quite capable of holding their own against the best of them, we've not seen a lot of other manufacturers adopt them, so Exynos chipsets have more or less been limited to Samsung's own smartphones. According to a new report, it's not that Samsung is unwilling to sell them to others, it may actually be because of a contract that it has with Qualcomm.
A report out of South Korea claims that Samsung did try to sell its Exynos chipsets to others with it was blocked by Qualcomm. The company apparently “abused the standard essential patent” license to stop Samsung from selling its modems and integrated chipsets for more than 25 years.
This unfair practice was pointed out in the resolution of the Fair Trade Commission of South Korea pertaining to the case of Qualcomm abusing its market power. “Samsung Electronics has been blocked from selling its modem chipsets to other smartphone manufacturers due to a license deal it signed with Qualcomm,” it said in the resolution.
The Fair Trade Commission has already levied an estimated $873 million in fines on Qualcomm following an investigation which concluded that the chipmaker had used its market position unfairly in Korea by refusing to give licenses to other chipset manufacturers and also by demanding high fees for its patents used by manufacturers. Qualcomm has filed an appeal and an application for a stay of the decision in a court of law.
