#寻找数码点评派#
Friends who often pay attention to the machine circle.
It is estimated that more or less will see the patent news of mobile phone manufacturers.
Among them, there are patent disputes between large manufacturers.
For example, the famous Nokia was forced to withdraw from some markets because of patent disputes.
A while ago, OPPO and realme also had a long relationship with Nokia because of patent disputes.
Until now, this has not come to an end.
Realme also had to "slow down" the pace of expansion in the German market.
More recently, Huawei and Xiaomi have also had patent disputes this year.
Among the four patents used by Xiaomi at that time, two related to Huawei's standard-essential patents in the field of communications.
Respectively, mobile communication and wireless communication.
As you know, making mobile phones is basically inseparable from these two patents...
For example, a few years ago, Samsung was sued by Huawei because of these two patents.
Therefore, many netizens are curious that the wave of patent disputes between Xiaomi and Huawei will eventually come to such an end.
Today, Brother Ji saw that this matter finally ushered in new progress.
Ah, but...
This time it is not a patent dispute, but good news for everyone:
Huawei and Xiaomi have reached a global patent cross-licensing agreement.
Boy...
In this situation, there is only a very classic picture that can express the mood of the machine brother.
However, it is estimated that the organic friend is still very confused.
What does patent cross-licensing mean?
Generally speaking.
Patent cross-licensing refers to the mutual licensing of two or more patentees to use each other's patented technology.
We can also simply understand, "You help me, I help you".
Take Huawei and Xiaomi, for example, the research and development strength of both companies is very top.
Then on both sides, there are high-quality exclusive patents, and the product direction is still the same (both make mobile phones).
This is likely to cause a problem.
Ami wants to make a product, and he can't bypass a certain patent from Huawei.
Then if you go through the normal patent payment process, it is troublesome, time-consuming and long.
But if you take the road of "patent cross-licensing", the style of painting will be different.
Xiaomi and Huawei, allowing each other to use some of their own patents.
In this way, it can not only reduce the cost of patent use, but also speed up the pace of product introduction, which is a good win-win situation.
But then again, the announcement itself didn't reveal much.
What is known is that the agreement covers communication technologies, including 5G.
Let's take another look at the number of 5G standard-essential patents that Huawei has so far.
Nearly 9,000 pieces, ranking first in the world, far ahead.
So Brother Ji makes a guess that is not necessarily reliable.
After the cross-licensing of various patents, Xiaomi may have to make up another patent fee to Huawei.
After all, under normal circumstances, patent cross-licensing follows the principle of "making up the difference".
For example, in previous years, Huawei and Apple reached a patent license agreement.
The protocol includes patents for wireless communication standards such as GSM, UMTS and LTE.
Nahuazi's communication patents are undoubtedly more and of higher quality.
So we can see that Huawei has licensed 805 invention patents to Apple, and the vast majority of these patents are applied for by Huawei through self-research.
As a cross-license, Apple licensed 49 invention patents to Huawei.
Only 24 of them are Apple's own patents, and the rest are patents that Apple bought from other companies.
In any case, the amount of mutual licensing of these patents is completely unequal.
The simplest and most direct solution is for the party with fewer patent licenses to pay the patent fee to the party with more licenses.
As for how much patent fees Apple paid to Huawei.
Apple does not say, Huawei does not watch, so it is still an unsolved mystery.
However, mobile phone manufacturers want to sell 5G mobile phones.
Most likely, it is impossible to bypass the link of being charged by Huazi for patent fees.
OK, that's it.
Regarding the meaning and role of patent licensing, friends know almost the same.
So next, we can diverge our thinking:
This wave of patent cross-licensing, does it help Xiaomi much?
Combined with Huawei's past patent cross-licensing history, Brother suddenly thought of a very novel direction.
I don't know if you remember.
At the end of last year, OPPO signed a global patent cross-licensing agreement with Huawei.
Here comes the point.
The agreement covers basic patents for communication standards, including the 5G standard.
Ahem... Did the crew find out?
This is exactly the same as Xiaomi's patent cross-licensing content, not to say identical, but also eighty percent similar.
Combined with the "hint" of blogger @ digital chat site.
OPPO signed a patent agreement with Huawei before, and it seems to have a mysterious connection with Zheku's self-developed chips.
Then, Brother Zhanji also posted a short Weibo.
It is said that the 4G/5G self-developed baseband has been done, but it is not said which one.
All kinds of clues combined.
Xiaomi and Huawei's patent cross-licensing this time...
Could it be that it is preparing in advance for the launch of self-developed chips?
Everything is so mysterious, but there are traces.
Of course, the above are all guesses of the machine brother.
At present, the public information that can be found is that Xiaomi is engaged in peripheral chips such as iSP and batteries.
It's still a little early to mention general-purpose SoC~
Even if you put aside miscellaneous speculation.
Brother Ji feels that the cooperation between Xiaomi and Huawei this time has visible benefits for both parties.
Through this cooperation, Xiaomi can bypass the copper wall on many patents.
Follow-up 5G communication related products will also be more handy.
So in exchange, what can Huawei get?
Brother Ji found such a copy from official media reports.
In 2022, Huawei added or renewed more than 20 new patent license agreements, including some domestic companies and foreign manufacturers such as Samsung and Nokia, and the patent revenue obtained has exceeded the patent fees paid to other companies for two consecutive years.
And this, in addition to the aforementioned brother, Xiaomi and OPPO.
There are also giants such as Ericsson, Samsung and Nokia.
Therefore, Huawei can obtain considerable income through cross-licensing of patents from other manufacturers.
As for the wave of cooperation between Huawei and Xiaomi, what kind of magical chemical reaction will occur.
Even, what heavyweight products will be born, we have to wait for a while.
This is just the beginning, isn't it.