Top of the big era

The emergence of intellectual property protection has brought mankind into a period of rapid development. Patent protection, especially in the field of science and technology, brings huge wealth and social status to inventors, and greatly encourages social innovation and invention.

The British Magna Carta promoted the protection of private property and the birth of the patent system. What followed was the globalized industrial era led by Britain.

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

However, there are always shadows under the sun.

In some fields, if the patent system goes too far, it will not only fail to 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 have been born who take advantage of this system.

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

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

In previous Motorola transactions, most of the more valuable patents were retained by Google, and Asda only obtained some patents of medium and low value.

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.

Everyone who should have left has left.

Zhou Buqi couldn't help laughing.

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

Zhou Buqi agrees with this idea, "Not only can it reduce strategic risks, but it can also have long-term economic advantages. In the short term, acquiring patents is indeed expensive. Kaishida's shipments are so large that each mobile phone Paying less than $3 in patent fees can save $200 million a year. In a few years, all the upfront patent acquisition costs will be saved.”

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

Of course, Motorola took advantage.

Also sighing secretly.

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

But patents are still the mainstream.

Zhou Shaoning said: "Xiaomi is in the early stages of development, and the future is full of uncertainty, so they have not invested enough in research and development, and they are not interested in third-party intellectual property rights. But Aisda is different. We should consider the long-term future. The more patents Asda holds, the more strategically stable it will be, and the more active it will be in developing overseas markets, and it will not be disturbed by sudden patent lawsuits. In addition, it can effectively reduce the amount of patents we pay every year. fee."

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

"Well, I should buy it!"

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 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?"

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

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

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

Zhou Shaoning was not polite to him at all.

In the past few years, Nokia has spun off and sold its mobile phone business, and Motorola has also split and sold its mobile phone business to Asda several times. Now, BlackBerry's mobile phone business can no longer continue and will be spun off.

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

Compared with Xiaomi, Asda has unparalleled advantages!

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

A great war raged for several years.

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

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

Cook had no choice but to deal with Qualcomm.

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

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

The other party is Apple CEO Tim Cook.

An era is over.

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

But Asda didn't suffer either.

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

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.

The authorities did not approve.

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.

The second is that Google disdains being a patent troll. Their purpose in obtaining patents is not to block others, but to prevent others from being stuck. Therefore, Google and Asda have mutually licensed patents free of charge. Google can use Motorola's patents held by Asda for free; Asda can also use Motorola's patents held by Google for free.

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.”

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

Zhou Buqi quickly calculated the score in his mind.

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

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.”

We have an appointment tonight.

"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 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.”

…

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.

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.

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?”

"ah?"

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

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.”

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

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

The first is that the price is cheaper and the amount paid is less.

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 will basically be evenly matched, and it will be difficult for the other party to ask for huge patent fees or for the other party to restrict its own development through patents.

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.

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.

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

Zhou Shaoning attached great importance to this matter. After seeing off the guests, he said to Zhou Buqi in a serious tone: "Patents are too important. Whether it is through third-party acquisitions or internal development to expand one's own patent stock, it may promote cross-fertilization." Licensing agreements can also weaken the copyright tax rates required when negotiating with other copyright holders."

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

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

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.”

If a French or German company goes to the United States to purchase some intellectual property rights, there will be no restrictions and the treatment will be similar to that of domestic companies. But Asda is a Chinese company, so it will encounter many obstacles to transactions.

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.

Zhou Buqi has been paying attention to this field for a long time. In the past few years, Asda 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.

Cook said in a deep voice: "Qualcomm's sales strategy is really too much!"

Asda 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 to help Asda many times to connect with competitors such as Google, Apple, Samsung, and Microsoft, paving the way for Asda's international development.

Finally, they settled privately.

There is also a strategic level.

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

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

This is not just the economic level.

Zhou Shaoning said in a deep voice: "That's what I mean. Now the reshuffle of the smartphone industry has basically ended. Even Blackberry is out of the game. In the future, everyone will pay more and more attention to industry patents. In the past two years, there have been more and more patent lawsuits in the smartphone industry. Now Astar has 8 patent lawsuits on its back."

No one can get around it.

Huawei and ZTE are the two most representative communications companies in China. They are both very strong in technology. All 4G patents in China are basically in the hands of these two companies. Astar also has some patents, but after all, it is too young and not a company specializing in communications. It can't keep up in all aspects. The number of patents is less than 10% of theirs.

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

The longer Astar exists and the more mobile phones it sells, the more money it can save by buying out patents.

Is he comparing it with Xiaomi?

"Yes, it's very important."

Different mobile phone manufacturers pay different patent fees to Qualcomm.

Using the case of dividing Motorola's patents with Google as a template, I believe both parties can be satisfied.

There are three main measures to deal with patents: First, pay money to purchase authorization; second, use technology research and development to circumvent the other party's patents; third, cross patent portfolios, so that you have me and I have you, and no one can do without the other.

"Dissatisfied! Very dissatisfied!"

It was obvious that the person was not friendly.

Zhou Buqi was not convenient to bring him home, so he simply asked him to go to watch the NBA game together.

Zhou Shaoning said: "Qualcomm holds about 14% of the 4G patents, which is about the same as the total share of 4G patents held in China. I have investigated these days. Huawei and ZTE pay Qualcomm 5.5 US dollars less in patent fees than us. It can be said that Xiaomi is the most unbearable 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 cost-effective than ours."

Zhou Buqi couldn't help laughing.

Zhou Buqi almost laughed out loud.

Brothers in distress!

This is good.

We can sit down and talk about cooperation.