When the low-key Huawei showed its sharp teeth, Qualcomm, Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo and other mobile phone giants were all spared.
On March 16, Huawei held a press conference on "Innovation and Intellectual Property 2020 White Paper" at Shenzhen Headquarters. Ding Jianxin, head of Huawei's intellectual property department, announced that Huawei will start charging 5G patent royalties from 20021.
The charging standard is based on the percentage of the selling price of the mobile phone, and the upper limit of the patent licensing fee for a single 5G mobile phone is set at $2.50.
It can be expected that Huawei's decision will cause an uproar in the mobile phone industry. However, compared with its colleague Qualcomm, Huawei's decision to charge the 5G patent fee was three years late.
Why did Huawei announce the collection of patent fees at this time?
This decision may be related to the suppression of the United States.
As we all know, because of the decision of the United States, Huawei has been unable to buy mobile phone chips since September last year 15, and even the Kirin chips independently developed cannot be handed over to TSMC for production. Huawei's mobile phone business has turned sharply under the pressure of supply chain.
In desperation, Huawei announced that it would complete the sale of HONOR brand assets by the end of 2020 10. Huawei only keeps the mobile phone business and product line of Huawei brand. Even so, Huawei's mobile phone chips are still not enough. Mate 40 series has been out of stock for more than half a year.
According to the forecast of some research institutions, the shipment of 202 1 Huawei mobile phones may drop to 70 million. In this case, Huawei's previous patent exemption agreements with major manufacturers such as Apple, Samsung and Qualcomm were not equal. Therefore, Song Liuping, chief legal officer of Huawei, revealed that he would renegotiate the 5G patent fees with Apple and Samsung.
When it comes to collecting patent fees, Huawei has a solid foundation and confidence. According to Huawei's official data, by the end of 2020, Huawei has more than 654.38 million patents, 90% of which are invention patents. Statistics from patent agencies in China, Europe and the United States show that Huawei often ranks first in patent applications every year.
In terms of 5G patents, Huawei's layout is also very deep. Not long ago, IPLytics, an internationally renowned patent data company, announced the global patent list of 5G technology. Huawei ranks first in the world with 15.39% of 5G patents, while Qualcomm, ZTE and Samsung rank second, third and fourth respectively.
Moreover, Huawei is also the maker of the 5G short code control channel standard, which means that Huawei's contribution in the 5G field is the largest enterprise.
Under the crazy pressure of the United States, Huawei can only renegotiate the 5G patent royalties with giants such as Apple, Samsung and Qualcomm to recover some losses.
However, compared with Qualcomm, Huawei's charging standards are much more merciful. Qualcomm has always been called "patent hooligan" in the mobile phone industry. After more than 30 years of technical accumulation in the communication industry, even Huawei and Apple are born to die.
In 20 19, Apple reached a settlement in the patent litigation war with Qualcomm. Apple not only signed a six-year purchase agreement with Qualcomm, but also paid a patent licensing fee of $4.7 billion to Qualcomm.
Last year, Huawei paid Qualcomm a one-time patent license fee of US$ 6,543.8+US$ 800 million.
In terms of the patent fees of 5G, Qualcomm has also formulated the standards very early. In 20 18, Qualcomm announced the charging standard for 5G patents, and the price was staggering.
Generally speaking, Qualcomm divides the license fees of 5G patents into two levels. One is a 5G mobile phone that only uses Qualcomm's core patents. Under this standard, a single-mode 5G mobile phone charges 2.275% of the terminal price, and a multi-mode 5G mobile phone (backward compatible with 3G/4G/5G) charges 3.25% of the terminal price.
The other is a 5G mobile phone using Qualcomm's core patents and non-core patents. Single-mode 5G mobile phones and multi-mode 5G mobile phones charge 4% and 5% patent licensing fees respectively.
Single-mode 5G mobile phones have never appeared, so the licensing fee for 5G patents in Qualcomm is basically 3.25%-5%. For a 5000-yuan 5G mobile phone in the market, you need to pay the patent fee of 162.5-250 yuan to Qualcomm.
Compared with Qualcomm's 5G patent licensing fee, Huawei's maximum usage fee of $2.50 is not worth mentioning.
However, when Huawei announced that it would charge for 5G patents, it actually caught Qualcomm off guard. For a long time, Qualcomm has always claimed to be the "patent leader" in the communication industry with its deep patent barriers.
After collecting patent licensing fees from mobile phone manufacturers such as Xiaomi, OPPO and VIVO, Qualcomm signed a patent exemption agreement with Huawei to provide patent protection for these manufacturers. Huawei can no longer charge patent fees to mobile phone manufacturers such as Xiaomi OV, even if these manufacturers use Huawei's 5G patents in their mobile phones.
Now, after the patent balance between Huawei and Qualcomm is broken, Huawei may directly charge domestic Qualcomm manufacturers for the use of 5G patents. It seems that it is charging domestic mobile phone companies, but in fact it has hit Qualcomm, an American company, in the face and broken Qualcomm's position in the industry.
So what should domestic mobile phone companies such as Xiaomi OV do? In my opinion, there are two directions. One is to strengthen technical cooperation with Huawei and form a mobile phone alliance in China to resist the patent hegemony of American enterprises. The second is to strengthen the research and development of core technologies and embark on the road of self-reliance and self-improvement.
What do you think of Huawei charging 5G patent fees? Welcome to leave a message in the comment area and let's discuss it together.