Domestic mobile phone break abroad, patent rogue to beware

To mention a software company called Soverain, you may not be familiar with it, but it is notorious abroad because it holds a few patents on online shopping, the most famous of which is the "Shopping cart" feature. Not only does the company claim to have a patent for the "Shopping cart", it has also waged a lengthy lawsuit against 50 of its websites, including Avon, Macy's, Victoria's Secret, and new eggs, but it has not won a lawsuit, and the United States appeals to the Federal Circuit Court has once again ruled Shopping Cart "patent belongs to invalid patent.

The reason that this is invalid patent, because it extends from the traditional shopping situation, you can put a variety of products in the car basket in the end of a unified payment means, more is the internet shopping in a common sense concept, and not enough to support the name of the patent. But Soverain insisted that it could become a patent, and in many lawsuits since 2011 repeatedly defeated the war, which logically became a "patent rogue" company. (note: The so-called patent Rogue, refers to those who do not have substantial business, mainly through the active launch of patent infringement lawsuits and profits to survive the company.) )

In fact, like Soverain such a patent rogue is not uncommon, and frankly speaking, Soverain is relatively low of the faction, the industry than Soverain famous large number of great skills, where we mainly mention a few and smartphone manufacturers related to the patent rogue company.

• Honestar Invention

Most people know about Honestar, because HTC had a sudden turn of luck when the US was about to be hit by Apple, not only with the latter for a 10-year patent-licensing agreement, but also by squeezing Apple's compensation quotas several times. The main reason behind this is not that HTC spent 300 million of dollars to buy the graphics chip company S3 Graphics, and not the apple of the defenseless HTC under the mercy, but HTC to Honestar pay protection fees.

Honestar, founded in 2000, manages a huge fund that includes partners and investors including Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Sony, Intel and the Harvard University Foundation. Honestar's main business is to study patents, or to help some businesses or individuals, or simply to take money to search for the future of the potential climate of the patent, to benefit from its foresight, which makes now Honestar has a patent content almost all-encompassing, which naturally will not be the smart phone and wireless communications related patents.

And after taking these patents, how did the Honestar come into being? Like many patent rogues, Honestar is also used to "intimidate" the way to allow manufacturers to voluntarily pay, and if manufacturers do not comply, then Honestar will resort to courts, like Ericsson sued Millet; Of course, Honestar also accepted the licensing deal, in the case of HTC and Apple, It was a part of the patent authorization that HTC had bought from Honestar to make patent authorization with the rich Apple and to reduce the amount of compensation.

· Vringo

Vringo has its own physical business-a publishing platform for mobile social apps-but that part of the entity business has barely generated revenue, so it doesn't change the fact that it's a patent rogue.

Vringo in the hands of the majority of patents from Nokia in 2012, including communications management, data and signal transmission, mobile management, frequency resource management and services, including some 500 patents, involving 22 million U.S. dollars, and the manufacturers targeted by ZTE, ASUS and so on. But the biggest sheep that was slaughtered by Vringo is Microsoft, which not only compensated for its $1 million trillion, but also agreed to pay a certain percentage of licensing fees in the future, in addition, Microsoft has also transferred 6 patents to Vringo.

What does the example of these two families illustrate? is a company to buy or apply for a patent, not necessarily for their own products, but also may be in order to let others do not use similar technology related products, if the latter is really done, it will have to pay tribute to the former, which is the basic logic of the patent rogue Company, And since most of the patent content is messy and even difficult to define, it will eventually bring the litigation cycle to 1-10 years, and litigation fees are often not cheap, ultimately giving the behavior of the patent hooligans a more successful opportunity. There is no doubt that this will hinder the overall progress of technology and industry.

Having said the two serious, we can also look at the other two familiar companies, one is Qualcomm, the other is Ericsson. Why are these two companies also patent rogues? This is because, as the current industry patent war, such as Qualcomm, Ericsson has a large number of core patents, but also more like to pick things of the company, although not degenerate into the reality of patent rogue, but also gradually have a patent rogue's stylish. And the standard of judgment involved is whether the patent standard is abused, however, whether it is a Qualcomm with a counter authorization agreement or a double charge, or Ericsson, which is also charging for the whole machine, is accused of being a patent rogue.

So what's a good way for big companies to face patent hooligans? This also varies from person to person, such as a company like Soverain, which can be directly confrontational or ignored, because it is hard to come up with anything that really has a gold-content patent to interfere with, and if the face of a company like HTC, such as Honestar, It would be better for companies with weak patents to pay their own bills, but companies like Apple, Google and Microsoft are more accustomed to fighting for their enemies through acts such as cross licensing or investment, which can reduce disputes and gain some benefits.

and specific to the current domestic manufacturers to fight for the sea situation, the problem is even more complicated, because the patent problem is one of its most headache. In the case of millet, it was not long ago in the Indian market, Ericsson's kill recruit, it was almost completely banned, thanks to a high pass, but even though Millet is a beneficiary of high-pass patent abuse, the latter's actions are still not worth advocating, and from the European Union, China and Japan and South Korea, The days of Qualcomm's investigation and punishment are far from over, and millet must find new, healthier and more lasting solutions.

So is it a good choice to rely on Honestar and other patent rogues? To be sure, this is at least not a bad idea, and it can solve the huge problem of possible kill at a lower cost, but it is also not a long-term policy, because the manufacturer pays the patent rogue, who takes the money to create or acquire more patent resources, Will eventually make it the entire industry upstream control, which for the rich, and patented Apple Microsoft is not a big deal, but for domestic manufacturers, undoubtedly involved in a lifetime of embarrassment.

So what's the best way to do it now? Looking to the future, the first research and development and accumulation of patents is the focus, can be skipped, the most worth mentioning is, such as Huawei, ZTE and Lenovo have a lot of patents of domestic manufacturers, if you can take the initiative to build a patent alliance of domestic manufacturers, in order to face the overall foreign market patent problems , and ultimately provide a foothold for domestic manufacturers in the overseas process, is undoubtedly a good thing for self-interest--after all, we know that domestic manufacturers overall patent capital is weak is the fact that, if the actual pressure of overseas markets is like loose sand, then may break out, it will never come back.