How much extra money to consumers pay for phones thanks to royalty fees?

With all the patent litigation flying around, it’s reasonable to assume it will affect the price of a smartphone. If a case is lost or settled out of court, one or both sides typically have to pay a patent fee to the other company. That added cost is not blindly absorbed by the company, and a new document shows just how much we’re paying for patents when we buy a device. According to two Apple lawyers and an Intel executive, over one-fourth of the cost of a smartphone is tied directly to patent royalty fees.