A long-simmering patent battle over wireless charging has Samsung on the hook for almost 200 million dollars.
Wireless charging is one of my favorite features of modern phones — it’s a rare day when I actually plug my phone in with a cable. But if you have a Samsung phone (and I do), it might just decide to stop Qi charging. A recent court loss over a wireless charging patent means Samsung will have to pay up, or lose access to the feature.
In 2022, Mojo Mobility sued Samsung for violating five of the former’s US patents on wireless charging in most of its phones sold from 2016 to now. Bringing the suit in the infamous East Texas federal district gave Mojo a very good chance at a win — good enough for Samsung to try and invalidate said patents last year, after turning down Mojo’s licensing efforts since 2013. Samsung officially lost the patent case on September 13th, having “willfully infringed” the patents.
The judge found Samsung liable for an incredible $192,136,029 in damages. In layman’s terms, the legal conclusion is basically that Samsung stole Mojo Mobility’s designs to use in phones, smartwatches, earbuds, et cetera. If Samsung doesn’t pay the fine, it may have to leave out the tech in future products, or engineer new ways of wireless charging that don’t infringe on the relevant patents.
It’s possible, though probably unlikely, that the company could be forced to disable wireless charging on existing phones with a software update. That’s according to a report by Phone Arena.
Samsung will almost certainly appeal the decision. The Eastern District of Texas is a favorite court for patent lawsuits, referred to as “patent trolling” by some for the way that the labyrinthian US patent system can be abused, specifically because it seems particularly friendly towards patent holders.
In fact Samsung has been in this exact situation, in this exact court, many times before. A recent estimate says that Samsung is being sued by US patent trolls every five days on average. Samsung even sponsored an ice skating rink directly in front of the Marshall, Texas courthouse… for entirely altruistic reasons, I’m sure. Samsung defends against these lawsuits with an army of attorneys and a massive effort to file its own technology patents, in the U.S. and around the world.
Even if Samsung’s high-powered legal team exhausts all its options, the most likely outcome is simply a very expensive bill (or a non-disclosed settlement) paid to Mojo Mobility. Either way, the process is likely to stretch out for months or even years before actual phone users see an impact, if they see any at all.
