Chapter 2869 Brothers in Trouble

The emergence of intellectual property protection has brought mankind into a period of rapid development. In particular, patent protection in the field of science and technology has brought huge wealth and social status to inventors, and greatly encouraged social innovation and invention.

The British Magna Carta promoted the protection of private property and the birth of the patent system, followed by the global industrial age led by Britain.

Even after two hundred years, the patent system is still the most important guarantee for promoting the development of modern civilization and social progress.

However, there will always be shadows under the sun.

In some fields, the patent system has gone too far and too much, which will not only not promote the progress of all mankind, but will also form some constraints, greatly restricting the technological innovation and application innovation of many technology companies.

Especially in the United States, a group of patent trolls who eat this system have been born.

Many people with higher ideals and greater pursuits have begun to abandon the idea of ​​patents and move towards open source.

But patents are still the mainstream.

No one can get around it.

In the face of patents, there are mainly three measures: first, pay money to purchase authorization; second, scientific and technological research and development to bypass the other party's patents; third, the intersection of patent combinations, you have me, I have you, and no one can do without each other.

The most effective, cost-saving and mainstream measure is, of course, the third one.

In recent years, Asda has been working hard to acquire various patents in the mobile phone manufacturing and communication industries, mainly to prepare for the third strategy. With more patents in hand, you need me and I need you, and we can basically break even, and it is difficult to be asked for huge patent fees and be restricted by the other party through patents.

However, due to geopolitical reasons, many intellectual property rights with strong scientific and technological attributes are difficult to trade even if one is willing to buy and the other is willing to sell.

The authorities do not approve.

A French or German company went to the United States to buy some intellectual property rights, which would not have any restrictions and the treatment would be similar to that of domestic companies. But Asda is a Chinese company, which would encounter many obstacles to the transaction.

In the previous Motorola transaction, most of the more valuable patents were intercepted by Google, and Asda only got some patents of medium and low value.

But Asda did not suffer any loss.

First of all, the price is cheap and the amount paid is less.

Secondly, Google disdains to be a patent troll. Their purpose of taking patents is not to block others, but to prevent being blocked by others. So Google and Asda have mutually licensed patents for free. Google can use the Motorola patents held by Asda for free; Asda can also use the Motorola patents held by Google for free.

This is of course Motorola taking advantage.

If Asda conducts patent transactions with BlackBerry, it will inevitably be subject to heavy scrutiny.

Using the case of splitting Motorola patents with Google as a template, I believe both parties will be satisfied.

In the past few years, Nokia split its mobile phone business and sold it, and Motorola also split its mobile phone business several times and sold it to Asda. Now, BlackBerry's mobile phone business can no longer be carried out and it will also be divested.

Those who should withdraw have withdrawn.

An era has ended.

Next, it is a new era for smartphone manufacturers to show their talents in this new market.

Zhou Shaoning attached great importance to this matter. After seeing off the guests, he said to Zhou Buqi earnestly: "Patents are too important. Whether through third-party acquisitions or internal development to expand your own patent stock, it may promote cross-licensing agreements and reduce the copyright tax rate required for negotiations with other copyright owners."

"Yes, it's very important."

Zhou Buqi has been paying attention to this field for a long time. In the past few years, Astar has launched seven patent acquisitions in the United States and Canada. Some cases are small, with only a few patents and the amount involved is only a few million US dollars; some cases involve as many as thousands of patents.

Zhou Shaoning pondered for a while and said slowly: "Astar is not Xiaomi, we are different from Xiaomi!"

"Ah?"

Zhou Buqi couldn't help laughing.

He also sighed secretly.

Is he comparing with Xiaomi?

Astar has been doing it for several years, and there is also personal guidance from Boss Zhou. He has also used his personal connections and industry resources many times to help Astar connect with competitors such as Google, Apple, Samsung, and Microsoft, paving the way for Astar's international development.

Compared with Xiaomi, Aisda has unparalleled advantages!

But even so, Zhou Shaoning couldn't help but compare Xiaomi, which was enough to show the huge gap between him and Lei Jun.

Zhou Shaoning said: "Xiaomi is in the early stages of development, and the future is full of uncertainty, so they don't invest enough in research and development, and are not interested in third-party intellectual property rights. But Aisda is different. We should consider the long-term future. The more patents Aisda has, the more stable it will be strategically, and the more active it will be in overseas markets. It will not encounter some sudden patent complaints. And it can effectively reduce the patent fees we pay every year."

Zhou Buqi agreed with this idea, "Not only can it reduce strategic risks, but it can also have long-term economic advantages. In the short term, it is indeed expensive to acquire patents. But Aisda has such a large shipment volume, and each mobile phone pays $3 less in patent fees, which can save $200 million a year. After a few years, all the costs of acquiring patents in the early stage will be saved."

Zhou Shaoning said: "Yes, even if we may not be able to use many patents, as long as the other party can use them, we can cross-license them to reduce the required patent fees."

Zhou Buqi understood it as soon as he heard it, and said with a smile: "Just tell me! Are you interested in another patent?"

Zhou Shaoning laughed, "I can't hide it from you!"

Zhou Buqi asked: "Do you need me to step forward?"

"If you can come forward and say a few words, it will definitely get twice the result with half the effort."

Zhou Shaoning was not polite to him at all.

There are free resources like this, so don’t use them in vain.

Zhou Shaoning said: "Qualcomm's share of 4G patents is about 14%, which is similar to the total share of 4G patents held in China. I have done some research in the past few days. Regarding Huawei and ZTE, the patents they paid to Qualcomm The fee can be US$5.5 lower than ours. Or Xiaomi is the most intolerable of Qualcomm’s bundling sales strategy, and we have to step up. The current patent fee market can make Huawei and ZTE’s mobile phones more expensive than ours. have more advantages."

Different mobile phone manufacturers pay different patent fees to Qualcomm.

Mainly because there is cross-licensing of patents behind the scenes, which can make up for some price differences.

Huawei and ZTE are the two most representative communications companies in China. They have strong technical capabilities. Basically, all domestic 4G patents are in the hands of these two companies. Aisda also has some patents in its hands, but after all, it is too young, and it is not a company that specializes in communications. It cannot keep up with them in all aspects, and the number of patents is not even 10% of theirs.

This also gives Huawei and ZTE some bargaining power with Qualcomm.

For the same Qualcomm chips, they can pay a lower price than Asda. Compared to Xiaomi, which has no technical accumulation at all, it is even lower. This can be their cost advantage.

Zhou Buqi asked: "How much exactly is it?"

Zhou Shaoning said: "It depends on the situation. The higher the price, the higher the patent fee. For a mobile phone priced at US$300, the patent fee paid by Asda to Qualcomm is still about US$10-12. Huawei and ZTE pays only half of what we pay.”

Zhou Buqi said: "Then the gap is really quite big."

Zhou Shaoning said: "Yes, this gap is enough to reflect the advantage in market pricing. This is because the core patents in the 4G field are in the hands of Qualcomm, while the 4G patents in the hands of Huawei and ZTE are relatively partial. Samsung holds them There are many good patents in the 4G field, and I estimate that the price can be lower.”

Zhou Buqi laughed and said: "There is no lowest, but even lower. Samsung is different from Qualcomm in South Korea."

Zhou Shaoning said in a deep voice: "That's what I mean. Now that the reshuffle in the smartphone industry has basically ended, even BlackBerry is out. Next, everyone will pay more and more attention to industrial patents. In the past two years, the smartphone industry has There are really more and more patent lawsuits filed. Now Asda is burdened with 8 patent lawsuits.”

"Ah?" Zhou Buqi was slightly startled, "Who? Apple? Samsung?"

Zhou Shaoning smiled and said: "It's not them, it's some small patent manufacturers, all from Europe. It's not too complicated. Let's talk about some compensation and then we all settled privately. But it's better to get some Buy the relevant patents and get it done once and for all.”

"Well, I should buy it!"

Zhou Buqi quickly calculated the score in his mind.

With the popularity of smartphones and the development of more markets, Asda's mobile phone shipments can quickly reach 100 million units a year. Saving $5 in patent fees per phone would save $500 million per year.

Compared with paying patent fees to each other for each mobile phone, it is more appropriate to buy out!

The longer Asda exists and the more phones it sells, the cheaper it will be to buy out patents.

This is not just economic.

There is also a strategic level.

As Zhou Shaoning said, in the upcoming international competition among smartphone manufacturers, the red line of patents will only become more and more sensitive. For domestic mobile phone manufacturers, if they want to develop internationally, they must have sufficient accumulation in patents.

Mobile phones from Huawei, ZTE, and Lenovo can be sold internationally because they have patents.

If OPPO and Vivo want to develop overseas, they can only go to the big African market in the patent desert.

Later I wanted to go to Europe to make a lot of money...

The first thing is to go to Europe to buy and buy. First, buy up a lot of patents in the industry, so that you can have some bargaining chips at the bottom of the box. Only then can it be qualified to be sold on the table and have the capital to sell it in the European market.

Zhou Shaoning said: "In this field, some core patents are scattered in Europe. But the current situation in Europe is very embarrassing. Nokia is dead, Ericsson cannot survive, and Europe has lost competitive mobile phone manufacturers. From this From a perspective, Europe can have a more open attitude when facing Asda’s patent acquisition request.”

After a pause, he continued: "The United States has very strict restrictions on the transfer of core patents. It is worried that our development will make their local mobile phone manufacturers lose their competitiveness. Europe does not have this worry, because Europe's Mobile phone manufacturers have been wiped out.”

Zhou Buqi couldn't help laughing.

Zhou Shaoning said: "Moreover, Europe has fewer restrictions in this regard than the United States. If you can come forward and say a few words to get them to open up appropriately and approve Asda's acquisition of some core-level patents, this can allow Asda to It will have an advantage in future international competition, and it will have more room for maneuver even when negotiating with Qualcomm.”

Zhou Buqi did his part, "Okay, I'll go back to China tomorrow. After settling the domestic affairs, let's go to Europe!"

…

We have an appointment tonight.

The other party is Apple CEO Tim Cook.

At first glance, it seems that the person coming is evil.

Cook is a very nice person, very personable, the complete opposite of Steve Jobs.

As hateful as Jobs is, Cook is as lovable as he is.

It was not convenient for Zhou Buqi to bring him to his home, so he simply made an appointment with him to watch an NBA game together.

The new NBA season has begun, and the battle is between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Golden State Warriors.

Cook has little interest in basketball, and he doesn’t like women. He doesn’t have a family. His life is basically all about work. Watching games is just for fun. “I saw the news. You have a disagreement with Qualcomm?”

Zhou Buqi said frankly: "Well, there are very serious differences."

Cook said solemnly: "Qualcomm's sales strategy is really too much!"

It’s not just domestic mobile phone manufacturers that are bullied by Qualcomm, and it’s not just Android mobile phone manufacturers. Apple is also suffering. Later, Apple couldn't bear it anymore and sued Qualcomm, setting off a patent war that shocked the world.

Qualcomm did not show any weakness at all. It also sued Apple and asked the US authorities to ban the export of iPhones because Apple stole a lot of Qualcomm's intellectual property when developing its own chips.

A great war raged for several years.

Eventually a private settlement was reached.

The condition of the settlement is that Apple pays Qualcomm US$4.5 billion in compensation, and then continues to purchase Qualcomm's baseband chips and continue to be Qualcomm's little brother.

Zhou Buqi glanced at him and said amusedly: "What do you mean? Apple is not satisfied with Qualcomm?"

"Dissatisfied! Very dissatisfied!"

What Cook is most angry about now is that he was bullied by Qualcomm. A few years ago, when Jobs was still alive, it was fine, and Qualcomm had not yet dominated the world. Jobs couldn't stand Qualcomm, and the iPhone could also use processor chips and baseband chips from Samsung and Intel.

Things are different now. In the field of baseband chips, Qualcomm dominates the world.

Cook had no choice but to deal with Qualcomm.

Zhou Buqi smiled and said, "Apple should be fine, right? You are a big company, the largest company in the world. Qualcomm can bully Asda, but it still dares to bully you?"

"Qualcomm's strategy is the same, whether it's facing Asda or Apple." Cook said a little angry when talking about this, "If you want to buy Qualcomm's chips, you have to buy some of their irrelevant patent licenses. This forced bundling costs Apple at least $1 billion every year.”

Zhou Buqi almost laughed.

Brothers in distress!

This is just great.

We can sit down and talk about cooperation.