The picture shows John Han, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Qualcomm Technology Licensing (QTL)
Market research firm Strategy Analytics released the latest report shows that the first half of this year, the global smart phone application processor market revenue of 9.4 billion US dollars, Qualcomm continues to maintain the leading edge, revenue share of 42%. Xiaolong chip in recent years has been extensive Installed in the major Andrews mobile phone which, which also makes a lot of people think that Qualcomm is a chip company.
Qualcomm has two business segments, one is the semiconductor chip business (QCT), is mainly known Xiaolong chip, the other is the technology licensing business (QTL), mainly on Qualcomm According to GAAP data for the fiscal year 2016, Qualcomm achieved revenue of $ 23.6 billion and net profit of $ 5.7 billion, of which QCT achieved revenue of $ 15,509 million and QTL achieved revenue of $ 7.664 billion.
According to Qualcomm, vice president of engineering and technology, Dr. Fan Mingxi introduced, Qualcomm in the equipment side of the technology covering many areas, including radio frequency, cellular technology, software, power supply, power, power, power, power, power, power, Management, digital signal processor; image processing, such as graphics processor, image processing, multimedia, etc .; connection technology, such as Bluetooth, NFC, Wi-Fi and so on.
In addition to device-side technology, Qualcomm is also engaged in infrastructure and application development, such as cellular communications technology in the field of automatic driving applications.
John Han has more than 20 years of experience in the field of technology licensing for the telecom industry, and he joined Qualcomm more than a year ago, and Qualcomm and Apple's patent dispute has recently been questioned by his business model. John Han admits that Qualcomm does Technology licensors are earning revenue, but these revenues will continue to be put into Qualcomm's technology research and development to ensure that technological innovation continues to empower the entire ecosystem.
He said, 'Qualcomm is a holder of intellectual property, mobile phone manufacturers are technology implementers, in this model is very important to achieve the balance of interests between the two, that is, the rights of intellectual property holders and The balance of the interests of the implementing party, should see more about the process of long - term cultivation of the entire ecosystem.
In simple terms, the so-called balance of interests is a win-win cooperation. Mobile phone manufacturers through the high-pass technology sharing in the development process can be detours, continue to enhance product competitiveness, such as overseas markets will be different from China's technical requirements and certification Qualcomm senior vice president and general manager of technology licensing China, general manager of Lin Weijian share, Qualcomm can rely on global operational experience to help them test equipment, so as to prepare for the commercialization of their products, but also by virtue of strong patent strength and Experience helps them reduce the risk of passive involvement in patent litigation.
And focus on early technology research and development of Qualcomm, through the collection of patent licensing fees can continue to maintain strong efforts in this regard, by cracking down on Qualcomm to weaken its research and development capabilities, is likely to fundamentally and technically weakened Andrews Camp innovation capacity.But in the Andrews camp, research and development capabilities and patent accumulation is not as good as Qualcomm's Chinese mobile phone manufacturers, this is tantamount to drastic.
'After we have shared the excellent technology developed with the rest of the industry, it will often take another five to eight years to allow the technology to be commercially available. If you can not continue to gain feedback, let the patent license go back to R & D, no company can wait for a long 10-year commercial process to continue to do research and innovation. "John Han said.
At the same time, in the research and development process is often accompanied by a huge risk.Frontong Engineering Vice President Fan Mingxi, for example, when Qualcomm in the development of 4G technology, there are five different internal technical solutions, the five sets of technology research and development at the same time. Stage, in order to promote the industry better development, through the industry and the common discussion, Qualcomm finally chose the LTE program, which is currently used in 4G technology standards.
According to him, Qualcomm currently has more than 30,000 employees, of which more than 80% of the technology research and development staff. Qualcomm insist on its annual revenue of 20% of its annual income into research and development, the current industry has accumulated R & D investment in more than 47 billion The US dollar as of 2017, Qualcomm in the world has been through the application for approval and is pending the number of patents reached 130,000.
After a patent is approved, patent owners are able to prevent others and others from using the patent based on the rights granted by patent protection.Apply is the best example of the communications industry, and its patented technology is strictly protected and Will not be shared with other businesses.
Qualcomm is in full compliance with the FRAND principle (ie, fair, reasonable, non-discriminatory principle), the technology authorized to any one want to use this technology. John Han said that his QTL department is to do is to develop Qualcomm Innovative technology to share and authorize the development of the entire industry, and create an open and fair competition in the mobile communications market.
According to John Han, Qualcomm's patented technology license has two very important features:
1, patent portfolio license
Qualcomm has 130,000 patents that have been authorized and are in the process of applying for patents, and if these patents are individually authorized to be cumbersome, they do not have real operability, so Qualcomm is more willing to use the industry's patent portfolio Licensing, from a partner perspective to reduce the possible costs.For example, Qualcomm patent portfolio license package to a user, the next 5 years, such a license will cover all five years during the Qualcomm patent, no need Repeated negotiations on technical licensing issues within five years.
2, machine license
A mobile phone is a baseband chipset, a memory card, a mobile processor, a monitor, a camera, a battery, and other components, and many of them have a lot of Completely unrelated to the communication function.Therefore the industry has a lot of doubt that the use of Qualcomm chips, it should not use this model to collect royalties.
In this regard, John Han said: 'Qualcomm's patent from the breadth and depth of the terms is indeed unmatched by other manufacturers. Qualcomm that the whole license is more fair and reasonable approach, that is, at a certain point in time to do a one-time permit, and Not with the mobile phone spare parts suppliers, such as GPU, PMIC, NFC, Wi-Fi, antenna, power supply, screen and other parts suppliers were negotiating. 'In his view, in the machine license mode, mobile phone manufacturers Group selection will become very free, they can choose to use Qualcomm outside the vendor's chipset.
In addition, the machine license fees is the industry for decades the industry practice practices, Ericsson, Nokia and Chinese manufacturers in the licensing of their own technology are used to machine the way.
John Han also shared Qualcomm's patent fees in China. According to the decision of China National Development and Reform Commission announced the Qualcomm license in China, for the use of brand equipment used in China, Qualcomm 3G and 4G necessary Chinese patent license, Qualcomm will charge a license fee of 3% for 3G devices (including 3G / 4G multimode equipment), and a license fee of 3.5% for 4G devices including 3-mode LTE-TDD, such as CDMA or WCDMA, In each case, the license fee base is 65% of the net price of the equipment.
According to him, the so-called net price of the equipment price limit, if the sales price exceeds the highest price of Qualcomm, will not charge the excess part, but only the upper limit of the price part of the above, in addition, some The cost of pricing is not related to the cost of the technology used in the mobile phone itself, such as packaging, transportation, insurance, etc. When Qualcomm negotiates with these devices, these additional costs are also reduced from the price of the equipment. Also thoroughly clarified the 'mobile phone on the installation of diamonds also need to pay royalties' rumor.
'We and industry-related participants have almost signed a technology license, the number of companies currently authorized to 345, through Qualcomm licensed production of more than 10 billion units.' John Han said.