Huawei to pay for Android patent infringement

Huawei would pay for the patent infringements it commits with its Android devices on patents from Rockstar, a partnership with Apple, Microsoft and BlackBerry, among others. The patents include 2g, 3g, 4g and calling.

Huawei and Rockstar do not mention the license agreement anywhere, but patent blogger Florian Müller discovered that Rockstar, a joint venture of several technology companies such as Apple, Microsoft, BlackBerry and Ericsson that has the sole purpose of monetizing patents, has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Huawei. drop. It appears that the companies have signed a license agreement.

Rockstar sued many Android device manufacturers last year, including Huawei. The Chinese manufacturer has apparently decided to conclude an agreement. There is no such agreement with the other manufacturers, although the agreement with Huawei does open the door for other manufacturers to do the same: Rockstar also sends a signal that it is open to licensing agreements.

In 2011, the consortium acquired the patent portfolio of the former Canadian telecom giant Nortel for $4.5 billion. The package consisted of 6000 patents describing techniques for wireless communication, 4G, voice services, optical network technology, search techniques and social networking. At the time, Google seized the patent bundle with its bid of 4.4 billion dollars.

Of the 6,000 patents, 2,000 have gone to the companies behind the consortium, including Apple, Microsoft, BlackBerry and Sony. The remaining 4,000 patents are now being deployed by the Rockstar consortium, which is doing so as an independent company. Rockstar is therefore not bound by previous promises from Apple and Microsoft, among others, to license the patents on reasonable terms. Rockstar has 32 employees, most of whom were previously at Nortel.