The recent "Notice of Acceptance of Administrative Rulings on Major Patent Infringement Disputes" published by China Intellectual Property News revealed that Huawei has formally filed a Xiaomi an administrative decision in a patent infringement dispute against.
The disputed methods are "Method for feedback of ACK/NACK information during carrier aggregation, base stations and user devices" and "Method and terminal for extracting panoramic images" and "Method and mobile terminal for screen locking".
The first two of these are disputes arising from essential patents and the latter two are disputes arising from non-essential patents. This case is an example of patent promotion for both foreign firms and growing domestic firms.
Xiaomi seeks more regulatory mechanisms
Regarding this patent dispute, Li Hongjiang, Managing Partner of Guantao Zhongmao Law Firm in Beijing and Director of the Intellectual Property Practices Committee, believes that this patent litigation is a normal part of competition in the telecom industry. In the mobile communications sector, the technical characteristics of interconnection and interoperability have led many international standards bodies to support the development of a number of technical standards to reduce the barriers to repetitive research and development and interoperability, but the introduction of patent technology into the standards development process has led to the combination of technical standards and patents resulting in a number of standards-related patents.
Since the beginning of this century, international giants such as Apple, Samsung, Qualcomm and Ericsson have all launched litigation offensives and defences using patents to help them compete in the market. Two of the four patents involved in the case are standard patents.
Following Huawei's administrative decision, Xiaomi was the first to respond, stating that the two parties are actively negotiating patent licensing. "China's intellectual property protection system provides for diverse settlement mechanisms, including administrative and judicial mediation. It is industry practice to resolve licensing issues through third party mediation mechanisms. Both Huawei and Xiaomi believe that intellectual property licensing and cooperation will facilitate patent licensing and cooperation. They see the promotion of innovation and public interest and mediation as an effective channel to facilitate the achievement of licensing. Both parties will seek to assist them in reaching agreement through various mediation mechanisms while continuing to actively negotiate."
The case may finally be settled
"The patent litigation cycle is long. Different patents and different legal remedies are challenged and defended in different jurisdictions. In the communications sector, the majority of parties involved in patent litigation eventually reach a settlement and achieve a competitive overall outcome through litigation support." - said Li Hongjiang.
Wang Zhenkun believes that it would be a positive sign if the patent dispute between Huawei and Xiaomi could be settled through the mediation mechanism of the State Intellectual Property Office. The end result should be that the two parties reach an agreement through mediation and Xiaomi pays a reasonable fee for the use of the patented technology.
