Recently, veteran communications equipment manufacturer Nokia has launched patent infringement lawsuits against OPPO in India, France, the United Kingdom and other countries. The industry speculates that this lawsuit may be related to 5G patents.
As of March 2021, among companies with 5G patents, Huawei accounts for about 18 patents, Qualcomm accounts for about 15 patents, Samsung patents accounts for about 13, Nokia patents account for about 11, and Ericsson The number of patents accounts for about 8%, and these companies alone account for 65% of the world’s 5G patents. Companies with sufficient 5G patents can cross-license each other to save costs and avoid patent disputes.
If a company does not have enough 5G patents, it can only pay patent fees to the patent holder. Therefore, it is a normal business behavior for Nokia to charge OPPO 5G patent fees. It is just the pricing of related patents. The power lies with Nokia. According to the 5G patent charging standards announced by Nokia, Nokia's 5G patent fees are "charged on a per-piece basis". Each 5G mobile phone using Nokia's 5G patents has to pay a patent fee of 3 euros, which is approximately RMB 22.93.
According to statistics from Counterpoint, an internationally renowned research organization, global smartphone shipments in the first quarter of 2021 were 354.94 million units, of which OPPO occupied 11% and ranked fourth, with a total of 39.0434 million units sold. Calculated based on the patent fee of 3 euros per unit, OPPO needs to pay 117.1302 million euros in patent fees in just one quarter, which is approximately 895.7532045 million yuan.
In the face of Nokia’s lawsuit, OPPO responded: OPPO respects and protects its own and third-party intellectual property rights and has always been committed to healthy patent licensing cooperation in the industry. OPPO opposes the use of litigation as a tool and other unreasonable Negotiation behavior.
It seems that OPPO does not approve of Nokia’s 5G license fee, but what can be done? Nokia may not sell related patents to OPPO, but OPPO cannot but sell 5G mobile phones! OPPO is also considered a major patent owner in China, but it still cannot escape being harvested.
Huawei currently owns the largest number of 5G patents. On March 16 this year, Huawei released the "Innovation and Intellectual Property White Paper 2020" and announced the charging standards for 5G multi-mode mobile phones for the first time: Huawei follows The 5G standard’s patent license fee for a single mobile phone is capped at US$2.5, and a reasonable percentage rate applicable to the selling price of the mobile phone is provided.
In February 2020, Huawei sued Verizon, the largest telecommunications company in the United States, for infringement of 12 patented technologies including optical transmission. Recently, the case officially opened in court, and Huawei demanded compensation of US$1 billion.
Apple and Samsung have to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in patent fees to Huawei every year, and this is inseparable from Huawei's hundreds of billions of R&D funds every year. However, other domestic mobile phone manufacturers can use the already developed patents without investing. Isn’t it natural to pay patent fees for the technology that comes out?
From following in the 2G era, to breaking through in the 3G era, from synchronizing in the 4G era, to leading in the 5G era. It is precisely because of companies like Huawei that our country's communications industry has overtaken the curve and moved to the forefront of the world. If you fall behind, you will be beaten. Only by keeping your destiny firmly in your own hands can you avoid being bullied. When foreign companies wave the "patent stick" against us, only by strengthening themselves can they avoid being "stuck" by others.
Do you think Huawei should charge patent fees from domestic mobile phone manufacturers? Will domestic mobile phone manufacturers obediently pay 5G patent fees to Huawei? Looking forward to your wonderful comments!