On September 13, 2023, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd (hereinafter referred to as Huawei) and Xiaomi Inc. (hereinafter referred to as Xiaomi) announced a global patent cross licensing agreement. According to official statements from Huawei and Xiaomi, this agreement will allow both parties to use each other's patents globally, covering fields such as 5G technology, smartphones, and IOT (Internet of Things). This means that Huawei and Xiaomi can use each other's patented technology, avoiding the risk of patent disputes and legal litigation, and promoting cooperation between the two parties in technological innovation and product development.
The confrontation between Huawei and Xiaomi can be traced from the cases No. 1-4 of the Announcement on Acceptance of Administrative Adjudication for Major Patent Infringement Disputes（the Announcement） submitted by Huawei, which was accepted by the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), at the beginning of the year. According to the information in the Announcement published by China Intellectual Property News, on January 17, 2023, the CNIPA accepted the case of the respondent Xiaomi infringing on four Chinese patents filed by Huawei Terminal Co., Ltd. From the disclosed content, the four patents involved in this dispute are:
Guo Zhi Bao Cai Zi [2023] No. 1: Patent No. ZL201110269715.3, invention titled "Method and device for sending control signaling";
Guo Zhi Bao Cai Zi [2023] No. 2: Patent No. ZL201010137731.2, invention titled "Method, base station, and user equipment for feeding back ACK/NACK information for carrier aggregation";
Guo Zhi Bao Cai Zi [2023] No. 3: Patent No. ZL201380073251.6, invention titled "Method and terminal for obtaining panoramic image";
Guo Zhi Bao Cai Zi [2023] No. 4: Patent No. ZL201810188201.7, invention titled "Screen-locking method and mobile terminal".
In terms of patent content, cases 1 and 2 involve 4G/LTE technology, which are standard essential patents (SEP). Cases 3 and 4 involve mobile phone photography and unlocking technology, which are non-SEP.
In addition, according to the announcement published by China Intellectual Property News in September, Xiaomi. also submitted Administrative Adjudication for Major Patent Infringement Dispute to the CNIPA, on July 21 this year. The respondent was Huawei Terminal Co., Ltd. From the disclosed content, the six patents involved in this dispute are:
Guo Zhi Bao Cai Zi [2023] No. 5: Patent No. ZL201510226573.0, "Shooting parameter setting method and device";
Guo Zhi Bao Cai Zi [2023] No. 6: Patent No. ZL201510357492.4, "Mobile terminal, display control method and display control device ";
Guo Zhi Bao Cai Zi [2023] No. 7: Patent No. ZL201410225638.5, "Angle measurement method, angle measurement device and terminal";
Guo Zhi Bao Cai Zi [2023] No. 8: Patent No. ZL201310268048.6, "Method and device for uploading, browsing, and deleting pictures";
Guo Zhi Bao Cai Zi [2023] No. 9: Patent No. ZL201310135293.X, "Short message combination method and device",
Guo Zhi Bao Cai Zi [2023] No. 10: Patent No. ZL201210333535.1, "Method, device and equipment for preventing false triggering"
In terms of patent content, non-SEP patents are mainly involved, such as mobile phone photography, photo processing.
From the above announcements, as of September this year, CNIPA's administrative adjudication channel for major patent infringement disputes has only accepted two requests, from Huawei and Xiaomi, respectively. From a patent perspective, the outcome of the patent tug of war between Xiaomi and Huawei remains uncertain.
Comment:
The global patent cross licensing agreement reached between Huawei and Xiaomi is seen as an important milestone for Huawei after the return of its mobile phone business.
The global patent cross licensing of Huawei and Xiaomi also automatically ended the administrative adjudication of major patent infringement disputes that lasted more than half a year. The Cross-Licensing between both parties may achieve a win-win cooperation: the agreement reached by Xiaomi and Huawei can further enhance Xiaomi's ability to expand in the global mobile phone market and also lay a solid foundation for Huawei to focus on high-end mobile phone business, facilitating the smooth completion of Huawei's plan to promote the license program.
It can be expected that the Chinese telecommunication companies, united in the field of patents, will play a more important role in the global governance of SEP.
(Provided by Yi ZHENG, Electronics & Physics Dept. I of SPTL)
