Earlier today (11th January 2023), Xiaomi and a couple of other companies jointly announced that they will finally be bringing an end to their long lasting IP disputes (Intellectual Property) as they looked towards the future.

The Chinese tech giant had been in dispute with other patent owners like IP Bridge, Orange, and Siemens. However, the firms have decided to make amends with one another through an innovative patent licensing transaction. In simpler terms, the companies are simply creating an efficient way of licensing patents across multiple technologies to push innovation and remove future disputes for Xiaomi and its future technologies.

According to Ran Xu, Xiaomi General Manager of Global Business Development and IP Strategy stated that “We continue to explore complementary licensing models to the traditional patent pool and bilateral models in order to avoid time-consuming disputes and to focus on innovation. This unique transaction structure lets Xiaomi customers enjoy benefits of inventions from 3 companies, efficiently.” The disputes were ended thanks to Norvus IP, which is a company that is owned by Xiaomi’s former Head of IP Strategy.

This firm helped the smartphone maker and the other three licensors and close this licensing transaction in an efficient manner. Similar, Rudolf Freytag, Siemens’ Head of Licensing and Technology said that “For us, protection of innovation by patents is of high importance. We highly welcome this agreement, as it constitutes a mutually very satisfactory solution over litigations and appreciates the solution- oriented approach of all parties involved in the deal.”

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The post Xiaomi, Siemens, & others finally end their long IP disputes appeared first on Gizmochina.

Shenzhen Transsion holdings might not be a very familiar name for most smartphone users here. So, if this name is not ringing a bell, how about Tecno, Infinix Mobile or iTel? I’m sure many of you may have heard at least one of these brands before and if you didn’t know, they are all owned by Transsion. The company made its debut at the STAR Market (Nasdaq style board for tech stocks by Shanghai stock exchange) earlier today but just before its IPO, Huawei slapped a lawsuit against Transsion in China.

Huawei sued Transsion in a local court in Shenzhen China, where both these companies are based. The lawsuit is specifically for IP theft and concerns Transsion and five of its subsidiaries. The local court has reportedly accepted the lawsuit, so we should hear more about this in the coming weeks.

Intellectual Property (IP) Rights are very important for any smartphone company. However, Transsion doesn’t have a lot of patents under its belt. The company reportedly has only 630 patents and 286 computer software copyrights to its name in China, which is minuscule as compared to competitors like Huawei and Xiaomi which have over 100,000 patents individually.

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So how did Transsion become the largest smartphone vendor in China with such a small number of patents?

The company basically established its dominance in Africa with extremely cheap smartphones that rely on old technologies like 2G whose patents have expired. Its Tecno, iTel, and Infinix brands all individually rank within the top 5 vendors in the African smartphone market. But as competitors like Xiaomi and Huawei are expanding its presence in the African continent, IP rights are going to be very important for Transsion. Also, Africa is slowly modernizing with technologies like 3G and 4G, which will force Transsion to improve its IPR position in the region.

So a lawsuit from a giant like Huawei won’t be welcomed by the company.

However, this lawsuit hasn’t affected the company’s IPO today. Transsion’s shares opened at RMB 53 ($7.4) which was a strong 50.7% higher than the listing price of RMB 35.15 ($4.93) per share. The company is reportedly valued at around RMB 42.4 billion which comes to around $5.95 billion.

UP NEXT: US government asks judge to dismiss lawsuit filed by Huawei

(Via)

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