Sina Technology News Beijing time on May 1st noon news, Qualcomm's patent licensing director said on Monday that the wireless technology company decided to expand its use of low-cost licensing model for the next generation of mobile data networks, this measure will help ease Tight conversations with two major customers including iPhone maker Apple.
All along, the patent business has brought most of the profits to Qualcomm, but it has also caused conflicts with many customers and regulatory agencies, such as Apple, Samsung Electronics, and Huawei, as well as regulators in China, Korea, and the United States.
The new transaction will reduce Qualcomm's licensing fee and make the business more stable, provided the regulatory agency recognizes the terms, and the company’s two major customers, Apple and another company that is generally considered to be Huawei, are willing to resolve the issue between them. Disputes and continue to pay to Qualcomm.
Alex Rogers, head of the patent licensing department of Qualcomm, said that this background is conducive to the company’s resolution of the existing two major licensee disputes. However, he did not mention the possibility of customer dispute resolution. Apple and Huawei did not comment.
Although Qualcomm sells mobile phone chips, the company has another long-established business, wireless network technology licensing. The licensing business has caused global controversy and attracted billions of dollars in regulatory fines, some of which are still In the appeal.
Qualcomm provided mobile phone manufacturers with two sets of patent options. One is a complete patent portfolio, which costs about 5% of the cost of mobile phones. The other is the so-called 'standard essential patent' portfolio, which only accounts for 3.25% of the cost. Contains the necessary patents for mobile data networks. Manufacturers can choose one of them, but most customers in the past would choose to purchase two sets of patents to avoid legal proceedings. And Qualcomm has been trying to avoid friction. On the one hand, companies try to make customers choose The low-cost set of standard patent licenses, on the other hand, the company is also continuing to add the next-generation 5G wireless network patents to the patent licensing portfolio at no additional cost.
However, the question now is whether there will be more handset manufacturers willing to choose Qualcomm's low-cost standard patent portfolio compared to higher-priced full patents.
In addition, the company's patent licensing approach for future 5G networks will also differ from previous 3G and 4G networks.
2. ZTE Application for 'Double Liu Hai' Screen Design Patent
When ZTE faced the ban in the United States, it was quite a headache. The ongoing product development did not stop. Recently, ZTE applied for a new design patent. It turned out to be a "double bangs" design that was further than "Liu Hai."
The State Intellectual Property Office of China recently announced the new ZTE patent. As shown in the figure, the top of the mobile phone screen is the popular “bangs” design, while the bottom is the hardware buttons. The screen extends on both sides to the bottom to form the W word. This has been It is ZTE's second patent submitted for related design. Registered in September last year. From the perspective of input resources, there is a very high chance of launching a product that actually uses this design, but now it faces the instability caused by the US ban. It is still unknown whether the product is launched on schedule.
The design of “Liu Hai” started to take off last year. The screen design of iPhone X is the most controversial. Many people think it is not good to see it. The design of the application interface has also increased a lot of trouble. However, several Android manufacturers followed the pace of Apple to launch the same design. Product. If ZTE really launches this product, can it be favored by consumers? Technews
3. The product won the monopoly of Apple and the patent was rejected. It attempted to counterattack Apple but failed.
Although the company has sued Apple for allegedly monopolizing the dispute, it has not yet achieved results. However, it has made some progress in several patent litigation disputes with Apple.
Recently, regarding the request for invalidation filed by Guangdong Pinsun Electronics Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as 'Pinsheng Company') for the patent held by Apple, the Patent Reexamination Board of the State Intellectual Property Office (hereinafter referred to as 'the Patent Reexamination Board') made a A review of the decision, declaring 'maintaining the validity of the patent'.
In fact, the focus of the dispute between Apple Inc. and PISEN is: PISEN Co., Ltd., without Apple's permission, manufactures, manufactures or sells many peripheral accessories or accessories related to the iPhone, iPad, etc. For example, the power cord Or plug in the first line, but Apple believes that this production, manufacturing or sales behavior of Pinseng Company is a tort, and Pinseng Company believes that Apple Company restricts or prohibits its production of related accessories or components and is suspected of being a monopoly.
Then, in what way will the dispute between the two parties arise from the production, manufacture, or sale of licensed peripheral products from Apple?
Apple Wins Wins: Is Online Sales Complaint, Patent Declared Ineffective, All Because of It?
On April 21, 2017, Apple issued a request for invalidation to the Patent Reexamination Board against multiple patents held by Pinsheng Company. The patents or products involved mainly include 'headset, charging cable, adapter, charger, and data cable. 'Products such as product wins, manufactures or sells products.
In addition, Apple also complained to many e-commerce platforms about the pride of the company's flagship store and authorized dealers' online shop, resulting in PHI products being forced to go offline. Apple sent a letter of attorney to Pinsheng to request P&G to obtain Prior to the MFi certification, the production and sales of equipment accessories were stopped.
The so-called 'MFi certification' ('MFi' for 'Made for iPod', 'Made for iPhone', and 'Made for iPad' abbreviation, refers to the electronic accessories specially designed for connecting iPod, iPhone and iPad, respectively). The company's authorized management mechanism for the main product parts manufacturers since 2011.
If there is no MFi authorization certification, once the defendant’s main product operating system is upgraded, the password between the connected product and the accessory components will also be upgraded. If the relevant accessory is not MFi certified, it may not be available.
In short, for peripheral products or components related to iPhone, iPad, etc., which are manufactured, sold or sold by Prudential, Apple has curbed the use of various methods such as the abolition of patents and complaint infringement.
As of April 30, 2018, P&G has at least six appearances of peripheral accessories or components related to iPhone, iPad, etc. including 'headset, charging cable, adapter, charger, and data cable'. The design patent has been invalidated.
Product wins back against Apple: suing Apple for alleged monopoly, trying to abolish Apple's related patents
In the face of the big infringement that Apple invented, P&G did not choose to sit still, but chose to fight back to save itself.
On August 25, 2017, Prudential Company sued Apple Inc. to the Beijing Intellectual Property Court and requested the court to: 1) order Apple to immediately stop the implementation of the MFi-accredited monopoly tort in China; 2) compensate economic losses by 1 yuan; 3) A reasonable expenditure of 400,000 yuan and to bear the costs of the case.
On September 20, 2017, Prudential Company filed a request for invalidation of a patent held by Apple Inc. to the Patent Reexamination Board.
It can be seen that in the face of the intimidation of Apple Inc., P&L chose two counter-attacks: one pair of Apple companies fetching anti-monopoly lawsuits, and the other, initiating invalid declarations for patents related to Apple's related accessories or components.
To put it simply, if P&G can win the lawsuit against Apple Inc. for alleged monopoly cases, then its production, manufacture, or sales of power cords, plugs, and other products related to the iPhone, iPad, etc., do not need to follow the company’s so-called MFi certification. '.
If Pin Sheng Company can win the announcement of Apple's patent invalidity, then its production, manufacture or sale of power cords, plugs and other products related to the iPhone, iPad, etc., will not constitute infringement, and it does not matter if it needs to be obtained. 'MFi certification'.
On April 28th, 2018, in response to Apple's patented design of the connector, the Patent Reexamination Board made a decision to maintain the validity of the patent.
This means that P&G's efforts in at least 'connector' products will encounter major challenges. And whether P&G's ability to break through Apple's encirclement to achieve breakthrough will depend on the monopoly lawsuit and other patent invalidations of Apple's product accessories. Now.
Otherwise, the company may face transformation or face high claims from Apple. Sohu
Author Li Junhui, Special Researcher, Intellectual Property Research Center, China University of Political Science and Law
4.Apple Releases Eye Tracking Patent Emphasizing Continuous Research and Investment in VR/AR
An Apple Eye Tracking patent recently released highlights the company’s ongoing research and investment in VR and AR.
According to reports, last year, Apple acquired the leading eye tracking company SMI. Eye tracking is very important for tracking with VR or AR head tracking. For example, you can communicate with people in other parts of the world for eye contact. In addition, research shows that By presenting the largest detail directly in front of your eyes, you can present more impressive visual details on less powerful hardware.
Patent description:
The eye-tracking system may comprise: at least one near-infrared (NIR) eye-tracking camera located on each side of the user's face and directed toward the eye-facing surface of the eyepiece of the HMD;
An illumination source that emits NIR light toward the user's eyes and a hot mirror between the eye-facing surface of the eyepiece and the user's eyes.
Heat mirrors reflect at least part of the NIR light while allowing visible light to pass through. These cameras can capture images of the user's eyes reflected by a hot mirror.
Positioning the hot mirror at or near the eye-facing surface of the eyepiece allows the camera to be placed on both sides of the user's face without having to perform imaging via the eyepiece. VRROOM
5. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China releases the first blockchain patent to solve the pain points of repeatedly submitting personal information
As one of the four major state-owned commercial banks in China, ICBC is exploring a new solution that can verify digital evidence and store data in sharable blockchains.
According to a patent application disclosed by the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO), ICBC aims to use a blockchain system to enhance the efficiency of certification processing and to prevent users from repeatedly submitting unified documents to multiple entities.
The patent provides an electronic certification processing, storage method and device, and an electronic certification processing system. The electronic certification processing method includes: receiving an electronic certificate generation request from an electronic certification terminal; verifying whether the electronic certification generation request satisfies the electronic certification. Generation conditions: When the generation condition is satisfied, send an electronic certificate generation request to the electronic certificate creation server; Receive the electronic certificate storage request from the electronic certificate open server, the electronic certificate storage request includes the electronic certificate; Check the electronic in the electronic certificate storage request Proof of whether to satisfy the encryption condition of the electronic certificate; When the encryption condition is satisfied, the electronic certificate is encrypted; The encrypted electronic certificate storage request is sent to the electronic proof block chain. The present invention improves the efficiency of the proof of proof and reduces the Prove the risk of being forged.
The patent was filed in November last year and is the first blockchain-related patent submitted by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China to the State Intellectual Property Office. In addition, the patent is aimed at solving the current personal consumer pain points. It is required to submit the same proof to different entities - such as birth certificate, marriage certificate, and diploma etc.
According to ICBC, “In the past, users had to obtain a certificate from the authority that issued the certificate, then manually complete the certificate, and then present the certificate to the entity that needed the certificate. This process is very inefficient and can easily cause issues such as forged certificates.”
It is worth mentioning that recently another Chinese state-owned commercial bank, China Banking Corporation, filed a blockchain patent application, claiming that it can better enhance the blockchain's data storage and processing capabilities.