Electronics

According to Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation, Huawei and OPPO Guangdong Mobile Communication Co., Ltd. recently announced the signing of a global patent cross licensing agreement, which covers the basic patents of cellular communication standards, including 5G standards. It is understood that Huawei and Samsung have also reached a cross licensing agreement on their standard essential patent packages.

As we all know, Samsung, Apple, Huawei, OPPO and other mobile phone manufacturers have had protracted patent lawsuits with Qualcomm, Ericsson, Nokia and other communication giants. The conclusion of several global patent cross licensing agreements indicates that the 5G intellectual property field is moving from zero sum competition to win-win cooperation.

According to the Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report, Shen Hongfei, Vice President of Huawei's Legal Department and Head of Major Projects Department, said that Huawei has been actively conducting licensing negotiations with major industry manufacturers around the world. In the past year, nearly 20 global manufacturers including Samsung and in smart cars, networks and other industries have obtained Huawei's patent license. It is estimated that a total of 350 million 5G mobile phones and 15 million connected vehicles will obtain Huawei's patent license in 2022.

It is understood that the cross licensing agreement reached between Huawei and OPPO mainly focuses on standard essential patents. The agreement made a package arrangement including patent licensing for 5G and other standard necessary patented technologies and related products of both parties. OPPO paid for the licensing of Huawei's advanced 5G technology, and Huawei also obtained the licensing of OPPO's wireless standard technology related patents.

Wang Yuesi, the executive manager of intellectual property of CIIC Technology, said that cross licensing of patents is a form of cooperation between two enterprises for mutual authorization of patents held by them. Both parties need to negotiate based on the value of their respective patents, including the part of exchange and the part of paid licensing. From the cooperation between Huawei and OPPO, Huawei has granted OPPO an advanced 5G technology license, while Huawei has obtained a patent license for OPPO wireless standard technology. Huawei has a relatively large number of 5G technology patents, which may be of higher value. OPPO is very likely to pay Huawei 5G related patent fee differentials, Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation reported.

At present, there are more than 210000 5G standard essential patents declared globally, involving 47000 patent families (one patent family includes multiple patents applied in different countries with common priority). Among them, China declared 18000 patent families, accounting for nearly 40% of the world's total, ranking first. In 2021, Huawei won the most patents in China, ranked first in the European Patent Office and fifth in the United States. Huawei's PCT patent applications have ranked first in the world for five consecutive years. Over the past five years, more than 2 billion smartphones have obtained Huawei 4G/5G patent licenses. At the same time, about 8 million smart cars licensed by Huawei 4G/5G patents are delivered to consumers every year.

Shen Hongfei said that among Chinese manufacturers that have signed licenses with Huawei, OPPO is by far the largest and has the largest number of its own patents. The cooperation between Huawei and OPPO this time shows that mutual recognition of the value of intellectual property between companies is conducive to promoting innovation and research of high value standards. This will encourage the whole industry to innovate continuously and provide consumers with more competitive products and services.

Feng Ying, chief intellectual property officer of OPPO, also said that the agreement with Huawei on a package of patent cross licensing fully reflects the recognition and respect of both sides for each other's intellectual property strength, which is a win-win result. OPPO will, as always, advocate the establishment of a long-term and healthy intellectual property ecology, advocate the settlement of intellectual property licensing through friendly consultation, and respect each other's patent value, Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation reported.

In Wang Yuesi's opinion, if an enterprise wants to achieve the goal of revenue through innovation, it must invest a lot of costs in R&D and intellectual property protection in the early stage. From the perspective of business models of enterprises in many developed countries, high-value patents have become a highly rewarding development issue. Chinese enterprises should also attach importance to the development of patent technology, especially standard essential patents, to enhance their competitiveness in the international market.

According to the Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report, Huawei recently released financial reports that its R&D expenditure in the first three quarters of 2022 reached 110 billion yuan, an increase of 8.241 billion yuan year-on-year. In the past 10 years, Huawei has invested 845 billion yuan in R&D, and more than 20 billion yuan in basic research every year. "Huawei has always adhered to the strategic focus on intellectual property rights and continued to invest heavily, so that it has won the technological leadership in 5G, WIFI, audio and video and other fields today." Shen Hongfei said that intellectual property licensing will feed back research and encourage innovation. Mutual recognition of the value of intellectual property among enterprises can promote the positive innovation cycle of "investment return reinvestment" of high-value standard technology research, and bring consumers better products and experiences.