The Korean brand ‘Samsung’ announced that recently it bought 23 patents related to magnetic recording technology from Seagate.
The giant sold its own HDD business and patents to Seagate 13 years ago, and now it is acquiring specific magnetic recording patents instead of ones it previously owned. The patents are possibly for data storage advancements, potentially for use in Samsung’s memory or storage products.
The aim behind the purchase is yet to be debated; some have speculated that Samsung probably uses these patents to upgrade its in-memory computing technology, whereas others are expecting that it’s simply to cut ties with Seagate after their previous business dealings. It has become known that most of the acquired patents are from 2002–2020, and four have already expired.
Back in 2011, Samsung sold its hard disk drive (HDD) business and a total of 479 patents to Seagate, and this was part of a major deal that pointed to various twerks; for instance, the Korean giant getting some of Seagate’s stock, collaboration on future storage solutions, Seagate providing HDDs for Galaxy devices, and many more. Later, in 2016, the Korean giant sold all of its Seagate stock.
Now the reports are saying that Samsung has bought 23 patents related to magnetic recording technology from Seagate. Some experts are saying that Samsung could use magnetic recording patents to develop MRAM-based in-memory computing technology, which is a powerful memory type with advantages for AI chips. At the moment, the exact reason behind this step is not clear.
An industry insider released a statement: “It may be an attempt by Samsung Electronics to settle the remaining business relationship after selling its stake in Seagate in the past, or it may be a kind of fake patent purchase strategy to deceive competitors.”
Via – TheLec
