ZTE submitted antitrust applications

ZTE submitted to the EU an application for Vringo antitrust investigation

Type: Chang Shanggao Author: ZTE

In response to Vringo, a U.S. patent operating company, and its affiliates allegedly abusing market dominance in Europe, ZTE's communications has filed an antitrust application to the European Commission to investigate the above actions by Vringo.

Based on the principle of fair competition in the communications market, Vringo is obliged to license its standard basic patents to external parties in accordance with the principle of "fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory" established by the International Telecommunication Standardization Organization (ETSI). ZTE has been hoping and trying to reach agreement with Vringo on patent licensing through negotiation. Unfortunately, however, we never see Vringo's willingness to demonstrate equal bargaining. Vringo has always insisted on obviously unreasonable licensing fees, and insisted on litigation as a bargaining chip.

Since the acquisition of Nokia's patents by Vringo in 2012, Vringo has promptly initiated a lawsuit against ZTE in order to prompt the realization of the purchase of the patent. During the two-year negotiation conducted by both parties over the past two years, Vringo insisted on its apparently unreasonable license fee and continued to sue more countries for using large-scale litigation as a bargaining chip to intervene ZTE's normal market operations and seek Advantage negotiating position in order to coerce ZTE as soon as possible to accept its high, unreasonable patent license purposes.

ZTE respects the legitimate patent claims of other manufacturers and has been seeking solutions to the industry's intellectual property disputes through cross-licensing and package agreements. ZTE has reached broad consensus with Qualcomm, Siemens, Ericsson and Microsoft and signed dozens of Global Intellectual Property Cross License Agreement.

But we will not compromise on any patent hegemony or provocation. Chinese advocate the first ceremony after the soldiers, courtesy. If the peace talks are not properly respected, we will resolutely fight back through a reasonable and legitimate approach. In response to Vringo's patent abuse, ZTE Corporation reserves the right to take further legal action against Vringo in various countries so as to safeguard the interests of its clients and the Company from interference.

At the same time, ZTE Corporation is confident of meeting all kinds of patent challenges with its continued large-scale technological innovation and investment. In the past 5 years, ZTE's R & D investment has exceeded 40 billion yuan. As of the end of 2013, ZTE had over 52,000 patent assets, of which over 16,000 patents were granted. In 2011 and 2012, ZTE ranks the first in the world in PCT applications and the second in the world in 2013.