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Connected cars patent disputes carry echoes of battles past
02 May 2019 12:00 am
Duration: 17:34
As cars integrate ever more technology, a legal fight is brewing over whether the holders of connectivity-related patents should offer licenses to the makers of the relevant car parts, or of the cars as a whole. With parallels to the “smartphone wars” of the past decade, this new front will strain the complex relationships between carmakers and their suppliers and pit industrial giants such as Daimler and Nokia against each other. It will also test the limits of antitrust law, with patent holders being accused of withholding licenses.
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29 Apr 2019 12:00 am by Lewis CroftsAs cars integrate ever more technology, a legal fight is brewing over whether the holders of connectivity-related patents should offer licenses to the makers of the relevant car parts, or of the cars as a whole.
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Sam Wilkin Managing Editor, Brussels

Sam manages MLex’s 20-strong team of reporters, researchers and editors in the EU capital. He coordinates and edits stories covering antitrust, mergers, state aid, data privacy, financial services, trade, energy and Brexit. He joined MLex as an editor in 2017, and previously worked as a reporter covering energy for Bloomberg and the Iran nuclear talks for Reuters. A graduate of Edinburgh University, he began his career as a political risk analyst before moving into journalism.... Read more
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Matthew Newman is a chief correspondent for MLex and writes about data protection, privacy, telecoms, cyber security and artificial intelligence. Matthew began his journalism career in 1991 in community newspapers. He worked as a reporter in Riga, Latvia in 1993 and then moved to Chicago where he covered local news. In 1995, he became a personal finance reporter for Dow Jones Newswires, and was then transferred to Brussels in 1999. He specialized in EU regulatory... Read more
Michael Acton Senior Correspondent

Michael is a senior correspondent for MLex in San Francisco. Before joining MLex, he reported on EU politics as the Financial Times’ Nico Colchester Fellow in Brussels. Michael has a degree in International Relations and Politics from the University of Cambridge, and a degree in History and French from University College London and Paris IV Sorbonne.