Samsung had a tough year. They lost quite a lot to Apple from the biggest mobile patent case in 2012, and now they've learned their lesson. According to mobile analyst Chetan Sharma, this South Korean technology giant has received the most mobile patents in 2012 and has accumulated more than any company worldwide, with IBM just behind. Although I'm not sure how they could come up with so many patents (thousands) within a year, it's certain very few companies as well as NPEs will be able to harass Samsung for a while.
It's important to also note how much influence mobile patents are gathering in the world of intellectual property. In U.S., Sharma stated that while only 5% of all patents granted in 2001 were mobile patents, by the end of 2013 this percentage will increase to 25%. It's also interesting that Europe is has a much less significant increase of number of mobile patents, probably because most big players in mobile technology are non-European. Sharma also mentioned that China has experience a 22% patent growth in the year of 2011, trying to catch up to the rest of the world.
Acquiring such hot patents like Samsung did, definitely comes with a price. I think another factor is that the USPTO is very lenient with granting their patents in comparison to other countries, which is why a lot of litigations and discrepancy follow granted patents.
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