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Qualcomm sues Meizu on license fee

Qualcomm Inc has sued Alibaba-invested smartphone maker Meizu in China for not paying it license fee, the world’s biggest mobile chip designer said today.

It has signed with more than 100 Chinese smartphone brands on new patent fee agreements, including Xiaomi and Lenovo, after it was fined more than 6 billion yuan (US$909 million) and required to adapt patent fee formats by Chinese anti-monopoly regulator in February last year.

Qualcomm has filed a complaint against Meizu in the Beijing Intellectual Property Court, which requests a patent license to Meizu “complying with China’s Anti-Monopoly Law and fair and reasonable licensing obligations”. The related patents include 3G (WCDMA and CDMA2000) and 4G (LTE) wireless communications technologies, said Qualcomm.

Meizu, which sold more than 20 million smartphones in 2015 after Alibaba’s investment, declined to make comments by today afternoon.

Chinese firms have to increase investment on research to obtain core technologies and patents, making them competitive in the both overseas and domestic markets, said analysts.

Huawei, ZTE and Oppo have got most new patents recently, ranking them among the top five smartphone brands in the global market.

In 2015, China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) ended a 14-month anti-monopoly investigation into the US-based chip designer Qualcomm with the fine of 6 billion yuan. It also asked Qualcomm to adapt patent fee system.

Then Qualcomm has signed new agreements with Chinese smartphone vendors, without Meizu.

 




 

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