 |
| Huawei and OPPO sign a patent cross-licensing agreement |
Huawei has agreed to license some of its patents to rival and co-own OPPO as part of its pursuit of financial gain as US sanctions deny it access to advanced chips, hurting the lucrative tech industry.
Huawei and OPPO announced the deal in a statement on Friday, saying they have a cross-patent licensing agreement covering a range of technologies including: 5G networks.
The deal comes as Huawei ramps up efforts to monetize its assets, including its patent portfolio, after US pressure caused sales and profits to drop sharply.
The two companies did not disclose the financial details of the deal, but Huawei said it was the largest cross-licensing deal with a Chinese company.
Fan Aaron, head of Huawei's intellectual property division, did not specify which patents were included in the deal. But Adler Feng, Head of OPPO's Intellectual Property Department, said in a statement that the partnership is win-win for both companies as it shows recognition and respect for each other's intellectual property.
Huawei recently expanded its patent licensing agreement after the United States put the world's largest telecoms equipment maker and China's largest smartphone maker on a trade blacklist in 2019. The company is also trying to diversify its revenue by moving into areas such as the automotive services and commercial segments. .
Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei called on intellectual property authorities to step up efforts to turn the vast patent pool into revenue through "reasonable prices" and earn "reasonable return" from development investment and corporate research. April. / last April.
Huawei estimates total patent licensing revenue at about $1.3 billion from 2019 to 2021. Fan expects revenue to continue to grow, but stressed that the company will not rely on these licensing fees as its main source of revenue.
Fan said the private company expects to close about 20 cross-patent licensing deals in 2022, including renewals of previous licensing deals with companies like Samsung. Fan added that the company is in talks with other Chinese and foreign companies on patent licensing.
Huawei estimates that around 350 million smartphones and 15 million connected cars that support 5G networks will benefit from Huawei patent licenses this year.
Last year, Huawei registered 6,952 patents under the International Patent Cooperation Treaty, an increase of 27% year on year, ranking first for the fifth consecutive year.