U.S.-based chip maker, Qualcomm, has lodged a patent infringement case in India against Transsion, the maker of Infinix, TECNO, and itel phone brands.
Transsion, a Chinese-based smartphone maker, has dominated Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East with its budget and mid-range smartphone lineups from Infinix, TECNO, and itel brands. The ambitious company has already cracked its way into the Russian market and is trying to replicate it in India.
According to Fortune.com, Qualcomm filed a complaint against Transsion in June in the High Court of Delhi, India, accusing it of patent infringement. Last Friday, the court acknowledged the case and gave Transsion time to prepare its defence.
Qualcomm vs Transsion Lawsuit
Smartphones are complex devices that consist of numerous components and technologies, each of which may be developed and patented by different companies.
As the smartphone market expands, the cumulative cost of these royalties can become a substantial revenue stream for patent holders, significantly impacting the overall cost structure of smartphone manufacturing.
Last year (2023), Qualcomm made $5.8 billion in licensing revenue, and has over the years won multiple lawsuits in patent infringements worth billions of dollars. Now, Qualcomm is suing Transsion in India, a country where the Chinese company has partnered with Dixon Technologies to produce branded products, as part of India’s PLI scheme.
According to Qualcomm’s general counsel Ann Chaplin (via Financial Times), Transsion “declined to accept a license from Qualcomm for the majority of its mobile products,” leading the company to seek litigation to defend their patent rights and maintain fair competition.
However, in a statement to Fortune, Transsion said that it “respects the intellectual property rights of third parties and is willing to follow the principles of REAND (Fair, Reasonable and non-Discriminatory) to reach an intellectual property license agreement with patent holders“.
Transsion argued that some patent holders own few or no patents in many emerging markets where they operate but still impose high licensing fees using a global rate without considering local conditions.
Here’s Transsion response (via Futubull):
“We have signed a 5G standard patent license agreement with Qualcomm and are fulfilling the agreement. Transsion’s sales network covers over 70 emerging market countries in Africa, South Asia, and other regions.
“In these countries, some patent owners do not have or only have a small number of patents, but they demand license fees that are too high, based on a globally uniform rate without considering the differences in economic development levels in different regions or markets where there are no or only a small number of patents, as well as different rates provided in different regions based on existing case law. We believe that the practice of some patent owners does not fully comply with the principles of fairness, reasonableness and non-discrimination.”
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