Top of the Great Era

Chapter 2929 Yin and Yang

There are only four domestic companies that have a certain market share in the European market for hardware products: Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo and Asda.

In the past few years, Huawei and ZTE have been involved in many patent lawsuits.

They were all exhausted.

Lenovo is not bothered by these issues, because Lenovo's main brand in Europe and the United States is ThinkPad, which was acquired from IBM and comes with many related patents. Another point is that computers have been on the market for 30 years, and many early patents in this field have expired.

In the beginning, Astar was under great pressure in terms of patents and lost many lawsuits.

Later, it cooperated with Google and acquired Motorola.

The number of related lawsuits has dropped sharply.

But there are still some lawsuits.

Internet companies are actually not that bad, they basically use open source protocols, and they can copy a lot of technology from all over the world and develop it freely. But hardware products like smartphones are not so good. If these lawsuits are not properly resolved, it will be really annoying.

It doesn't necessarily mean there is infringement.

Many are patent trolls.

It is easier for a company like Qualcomm that has serious patents.

Everyone puts it on the table.

I'm just afraid that some rats are messing around behind my back.

Zhou Buqi said: "Many patent trolls file lawsuits not for the purpose of winning the case."

"what?"

Tang Binchen was slightly stunned.

Zhou Buqi said: "I didn't expect it at first. I talked to Zhou Shaoning several times last time and then I understood what a real patent troll is. It's even worse than Qualcomm. Some institutions really have a lot of good patents. There are also some who are just looking for trouble. They file lawsuits not to win the case, but to create trouble."

"This is really amazing!" Tang Binchen already understood what this meant. "Isn't it just like when a foreign company comes to China to start building a factory, the local tyrants will organize some ordinary people to cause trouble, asking them to pay money, and if they don't pay, they will cause trouble every day."

"Yes, almost. The nature is the same." Zhou Buqi smiled and then sighed. "A patent lawsuit in the EU can take two or three years. The cost is too high. Not only will the lawyers' fees be several million dollars, but it will also cause huge troubles to the company's daily operations."

"Well, it's just like when a foreign company encounters trouble from a local tyrant. Either they move away, or they spend money to get rid of the trouble."

"When faced with this kind of thing, most companies settle privately. It's like being blackmailed, and they just pay some money to get rid of it. If they really file a lawsuit and follow the formal process, it will cost more than ten times more."

"That's really frustrating."

"So Astar needs to buy more patents. On the one hand, it can accumulate strong capital, and on the other hand, it can also be a compromise."

Zhou Buqi didn't want to compromise either.

But a strong dragon cannot overwhelm a local snake.

I can't accept it.

They are locals, usually a few lawyers working together, who have a few patents and set up a patent company. Then, they start looking for prey in the market, preferably new outsiders.

These outsiders, who have just arrived and haven't yet established themselves, will be very passive and panicked when they suddenly receive a lawsuit.

Either you pay the money to settle the dispute, or you hire a law firm to fight the case head-on... If the lawsuit really goes to court, it will be too long. Hiring a team of lawyers may cost millions of euros a year...

Once the dispute starts, a lawsuit may take four or five years to complete.

But if you give in and settle the matter, paying a few hundred thousand euros, it will be settled.

Not to mention Estar, even technology giants like Microsoft, Apple, and Oracle often encounter troubles from such patent trolls, and most of the time they spend money to avoid trouble.

Unless the other party demands hundreds of millions of dollars, there is nothing we can do.

Zhou Buqi said: "There are mainly two ideas now. In the past few years, Qualcomm has killed many European chip manufacturers, which is a good thing for us. If Asda wants to develop its own chips, it can easily recruit chip engineers who have lost their jobs. Not only Asda, Huawei also has a semiconductor research center in Europe, and they are also using this method to develop their own chips. However, people alone are not enough, there is also intellectual property rights."

"Well, these European chip manufacturers have a lot of intellectual property."

Tang Binchen nodded.

I think it's quite interesting. Zhou Lao Da and Qualcomm really love and hate each other.

Qualcomm has ruined the chip industry in Europe, which is really a big help. With China's strength, it is too difficult to develop mobile phone chips by ourselves. We can't even play low-end chips. But the chip industry in Europe has a strong foundation. If we set up a chip R&D center in Europe, we will have a good chance to impact the high-end in the future!

It is difficult to compete with Qualcomm, but at least we have the capital to compete.

Zhou Buqi said: "If these intellectual property rights fall into the hands of patent trolls, there will be trouble in the future! Cut them off at the source first. Astar will spend a lot of money to buy these things."

"What about the second step?"

"The second step is to find those patent trolls and buy patents from them."

"what?"

Tang Binchen was slightly stunned.

Zhou Buqi said: "Some patents may not be useful, but buying them can at least avoid future troubles and prevent harassment. However, what is more important is to establish a cooperative relationship through patent transactions. If we can establish good relations with the local snakes and authorize these patent trolls to help Astar fight infringement, there will be fewer troubles in the future."

It’s like a company built a factory in a local area and was disturbed by the local tyrants.

If there's trouble, just pay to settle it.

This is only a temporary solution and does not address the root cause.

If something else happens in the future, the other party may come out to cause trouble.

The best thing is to sit down and talk with the local boss, and then develop a friendship with him. In this way, you can build a network of relationships in the local area, and when you encounter any problems in the future, you can ask this local boss to help you.

Tang Binchen frowned slightly, "Will this work?"

Zhou Buqi said: "What can we do? We can try our best. At least we can have more patents and more patent portfolios, so that we can have confidence in all aspects. If we have nothing, we will not even have the courage to challenge. We can only watch others blackmail us and pay the money."

"What about Huawei? What about ZTE?"

"How can they be the same? They have been developing in the European market for more than ten years, and these companies have been established for 20 to 30 years and have accumulated a lot. Astar is still too young and has a poor foundation. Good people are bullied, and weak people are also bullied."

"Why does it sound to me like Huawei and ZTE are both better than Estar?"

Tang Binchen burst into laughter.

Zhou Buqi said: "They have accumulated a lot of technology. Strong technology is a strong basis, but it does not mean that the market will definitely recognize it."

Tang Binchen said carelessly: "It's annoying just to hear that. It's easier to work on the Internet! At least you don't have to worry about these trivial things!"

"It's not just mobile phones. Over at Chaowan Commune, they were sued for making blind boxes, claiming it was patent infringement and demanding 1200 million euros in compensation. Damn, they're patent trolls at first glance!"

Zhou Buqi has seen too many things like this.

Another example is Hollywood.

A new movie from Ziweixing Global premiered... and soon a "script thief" came to the door, saying that the movie plagiarized his ideas and concepts, and demanded compensation. It wasn't much, just two or three hundred thousand dollars.

  How to do?

You can only give money.

When a movie is released, the first few days are the most critical. If a scandal breaks out at this critical moment and the box office fails, the loss will be huge. There is no way to be serious about this kind of thing... If you really take it seriously and try to prove that you didn't plagiarize, you're doomed.

By the time the proof comes out, the movie will have already failed at the box office, with the loss potentially amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars.

Who dares to take this risk?

It’s better to just pay the money and admit defeat.

Spend some money to settle privately, spend money to buy peace, the sooner it is settled, the better.

The good thing about Taoism is the division into yin and yang.

Patent protection in Europe and the United States is good, which is the "Yang". The accompanying "Yin" is the various patent trolls that make people anxious.

(End of this chapter)