Chapter 2829 Patent Troll

Zhou Shaoning reacted quickly.

Boss Zhou is right in what he said!

He has no connection with South Korea, so why should he oppose Qualcomm’s restriction on the development of the mobile phone industry in China and South Korea? Obviously, this is intentional to bring the Koreans along!

Zhou Shaoning's eyes lit up, "Bring Samsung together?"

Zhou Buqi said: "Li Zairong and I still have some friendship."

Zhou Shaoning nodded, "Well, among these mobile phone manufacturers, the one least afraid of Qualcomm is Samsung. Samsung's self-developed chips are not much worse than Qualcomm's, mainly because the business flexibility and optimization are weaker. Even if If Qualcomm is offended and Qualcomm is unwilling to supply products, it will not have much impact on the development of Samsung mobile phones.”

Zhou Buqi said: "It's not that Samsung is afraid of Qualcomm, it's that Qualcomm is afraid of Samsung. Not to mention restricting its supply to Samsung, Qualcomm must have some preferential conditions in its supply order to Samsung that we don't have. If Samsung is forced to use mobile phones, Using our own chips is not in line with Qualcomm’s strategic plan in the long run.”

"Then what do you want to do?"

"Antitrust."

"A lawsuit?"

"right."

"Isn't this road so easy?" Zhou Shaoning frowned, "Do you know the British software company Icera?"

"Ah?" Zhou Buqi was slightly startled, "Why is it a software company again?"

Zhou Shaoning said: "Icera is a software company, but it is in the business of baseband chips. In the past, basebands relied on hardware, but Icera implemented the baseband functions through software. Therefore, the cost will be lower. Qualcomm's The baseband chip uses hardware. Qualcomm's current Snapdragon chips are very influential, and a very important reason is that their baseband chips are even more marketable than Snapdragon processors. Apple can develop its own CPU, but it also needs to use Qualcomm’s baseband chips. It can be said that baseband chips are Qualcomm’s core competitiveness in the smartphone market, and even Apple cannot get around it.”

"Then what?" Zhou Buqi had a not-so-good prediction, because the market is very cruel. If there is competition, no matter whether you are from China, Japan, South Korea, Britain, France or Germany, for a company like Qualcomm, it will actually be very difficult. Same thing, "Is this Icera company killed by Qualcomm?"

Zhou Shaoning nodded, "Well, after Icera launched the software baseband, it quickly won the market. It had a lower cost advantage, was more flexible, smaller in size, and could get rid of Qualcomm's rogue patents. Huawei and ZTE both After becoming their customers, several European operators such as Vodafone also signed orders, and even Apple was interested in adopting Icera’s solution. At this time, Qualcomm took advantage of the situation.”

"What kind of dirty trick?"

"Abusing its monopoly position in 3G baseband chipsets, they engaged in 'predatory' bidding against competitors and sold their UMTS baseband chips to many Icera customers, including ZTE and Huawei, at prices well below cost. It also provided a lot of patent benefits, which forced Icera to withdraw from the market. Huawei and ZTE also used Qualcomm chips in their mobile phones, but they did not raise any objections. They probably helped Qualcomm defeat Icera in the first place. Because of this, Qualcomm’s bundling strategy will not be too harsh when selling them Snapdragon chips.”

"Monopoly?"

If Zhou Buqi wants to deal with Qualcomm, he must take advantage of its monopoly position in the market.

So Zhou Shaoning's words contain a lot of information, and this is what he is most concerned about.

Zhou Shaoning said: "Well, the monopoly position is true. This is related to... This is a long story, related to cdma technology. This technology was originally developed by the US military and used for soldiers on the battlefield. Later, when the US military had more advanced technology, it lifted the ban and sold it to the private sector. At that time, many institutions were not optimistic about it. Only Qualcomm paid attention to it and rushed to buy it. CDMA technology has become the core technology in 3G networks. The domestic operator giant Telecom uses the cdma solution. The wcdma technology used by China Unicom is also a variant of cdma, and it also pays a huge amount of patents to Qualcomm every year. fee."

After saying this, Zhou Buqi understood.

Qualcomm has mastered the technical standards of the industry!

CDMA belongs to Qualcomm, so the CDMA standard baseband chip developed by Qualcomm is of course the product that is most consistent with this standard, the best optimized, and the most recognized by the market. 4g was developed on the basis of 3g and requires the use of many 3g intellectual property rights; 5g is developed on the basis of 4g and 3g and also requires many 4g and 3g patent licenses.

This is equivalent to giving Qualcomm a huge advantage in the communications industry.

Once Qualcomm establishes barriers in the intellectual property rights of 3G Internet infrastructure, then in the future 4G and 5G markets, Qualcomm can be close to the water and firmly consolidate its dominance in the industry.

This means that without Qualcomm’s authorization, no company in the world can make 3G, 4G, and 5G related chips. However, the British Icera software company has relied on software technology to realize the functions of 3G baseband chips, successfully bypassing Qualcomm... Shopping malls are like battlefields, so it's strange that Qualcomm doesn't jump over the wall in a hurry!

Zhou Buqi got excited and said, "Isn't it settled? It's a monopoly!"

Zhou Shaoning shook his head, "It's not that simple. Qualcomm used its industry monopoly position to suppress Icera by various means, and they succeeded. Now Icera has almost no business, and it is said that it will be acquired. However, as early as three years ago, Icera It has already sued Qualcomm for monopoly.”

"In the EU?"

"right."

"It's been three years and there's still no results?"

"Absolutely not." Zhou Shaoning was helpless about this, "There was not even a formal investigation launched."

Zhou Buqi expressed shock, "How could this happen?"

Zhou Shaoning said: "Qualcomm is a well-known patent troll. It is really difficult to use legal means to defeat them in the name of monopoly. They already have too much experience and measures to deal with the law. In fact, as early as 2007, TI, Chip companies such as Infineon, Freescale, and STE needed to pay excessive patent fees and licensing fees to Qualcomm if they wanted to produce 3G chips and use CDMA solutions, and at that time they already had a bundled sales strategy. Making our own chips while relying on patents to limit the development of competitors is, in our view, a typical monopoly behavior. But there is no follow-up and we just sit back and watch as all these 3G chip manufacturers fail.”

Zhou Buqi was stunned.

Do you believe that Qualcomm’s dominance in mobile phone chips was achieved through patent trolls and monopoly methods?

Isn't this too evil?

Zhou Shaoning said: "Actually, even earlier, in 2005, companies such as Broadcom, Ericsson, NEC, Nokia, Panasonic, and Texas Instruments complained to the European Commission, saying that Qualcomm had monopolistic behavior. The EU investigated 4 In 2009, the antitrust investigation was concluded in 2009 without any punishment for Qualcomm.”

Qualcomm is an American company.

However, many European chip companies have gone bankrupt due to Qualcomm's monopoly position and vicious behavior. The EU has no reason to protect Qualcomm. On the contrary, the EU has always imposed severe penalties on American technology giants.

Qualcomm's ability to escape disasters time and time again can only explain one problem: they do not constitute a monopoly in a legal sense.

In other words, Qualcomm has too much experience in dealing with this type of investigation.

Completely confident.

The attack on the British software company Icera three years ago is not worth mentioning at all.

It's just a very small company.

Even if many IT giants join forces, they can't do anything against Qualcomm. What ability does a small company have to challenge Qualcomm? I made a complaint three years ago, but the EU even launched a formal investigation. It's not that the EU is irresponsible, but it's because the EU has had too many experiences. If this is investigated... it will be nothing more than a waste of taxpayers' money and has no other meaning. Investigations come and go, but there is still insufficient evidence and legal basis to punish Qualcomm.

Zhou Shaoning is a veteran in the industry, unlike a layman like Zhou Buqi.

So he was clear.

At present, Qualcomm has adopted so many monopolistic mandatory bundled sales and reverse patent free license agreements for mobile phone manufacturers. It is completely cliché and nothing at all. It is almost impossible to fight against Qualcomm in a legal sense.

This makes him more pessimistic.

There is no hope of resisting Qualcomm.

Zhou Buqi was unconvinced and said with an angry smile: "What do you mean, justice has not been served yet?"

Zhou Shaoning shook his head, "Law..."

"Stop being like the law!" Zhou Buqi snorted coldly, "Many times, the law cannot deliver justice! The biggest advantage of the country is the flexibility in legal interpretation. On top of the law, there are also oral orders! "

"ah?"

This time, it was Zhou Shaoning's turn to be stunned again.

Zhou Buqi smiled coldly, "I don't believe it anymore. What can I do with Qualcomm? The EU's tactics will not work in China! In the face of the hard facts, all the rhetoric is nonsense! Justice No room for debate!”

Zhou Shaoning asked weakly: "What about South Korea?"

Zhou Buqi has traveled to and from South Korea many times. He has been in contact with several major chaebols in South Korea and knows them very well. He smiled and said: "Korea is also reliable. If you want to deal with a gangster, you have to be more gangster than him." . It just so happens that South Korea is such a rogue country. As long as several chaebols work together, it will not be a problem and they will definitely impose the most severe antitrust penalties on Qualcomm.”

"Well……"

Zhou Shaoning was speechless.

Only Boss Zhou can promote this kind of thing.

Besides him, who else can maintain good relations with so many Korean chaebols?

Samsung, Hyundai, LG, SK, the four major chaebols are all covered, maybe it can actually happen!

Zhou Buqi said conclusively: "The EU's approach is too weak, weak, and devoid of justice. This time, I will promote China and South Korea to join forces, and we must win over Qualcomm to safeguard justice!"