As the saying goes, slow patent activity makes for strange bedfellows. Or at least that should be the saying. While Samsung is not partnering with Honda, it is following Honda’s idea of partnering with companies that have existing portfolios to stay competitive by partnering with IBM and Red Hat who combined have the most patent assets in the last five years after Intel and Cisco. Honda’s activity and the advantages of them partnering with other companies was highlighted in a recent insight entitled “No Patents? Find A Partner Who Has Some. Honda, Meet Verizon”  

This partnership is for developing an operating system at the edge, a pivotal part of Samsung’s future plans as it recently discussed.  All groups should benefit from the partnership as Samsung will be able to leverage two of the leading patent portfolios in edge computing, while Red Hat and IBM will benefit from the intellectual property and expertise on mobile technologies like 5G, Wi-Fi 6, and Bluetooth that Samsung will bring to expand the reach of the existing edge computing technology Red Hat and IBM own.

Samsung would still be wise to invest more in developing patents for edge computing if that is one of its main focuses for the future, but in the meantime this strategic partnership should allow them to continue developing with the latest technologies. To keep an eye on the latest patent trends and watch out for which companies may partner next, check out the Edge Computing Patent Forecast®.