We will agree that every smartphone manufacturer aims to sell more phones than the competition. However, there is also a lot of competition in between. Maybe even more. This is the case of what was seen in the court battles between Huawei and Xiaomi at the expense of what both firms assumed were infringements of each other’s patents.
Luckily, both for these manufacturers and for the rest, the war has ended with the sealing of a new international agreement between both as far as patents are concerned.
Before war, now peace and then glory?
It is early to draw conclusions, but it seems that we are facing the end of the litigation between two of the large Chinese technology companies. And it has been more than two years since Huawei began a legal journey against Xiaomi both in China and in the West for what they considered patent infringements. A war that continued until just a few months ago when, this time Xiaomi was the one that sued Huawei for similar reasons.
This week, as reflected in a statement issued by Huawei, both companies have managed to bury the hatchet. In the words of Ran Xu, one of Xiaomi’s corporate business managers, “both brands recognize and respect the intellectual property of the other”. For Huawei’s part, its head of intellectual property, Alan Fen, says the deal will help the company “enhance investment in and research into future mobile communications technologies.”
The joint statement is rather concise as far as details are concerned, but it presupposes some type of economic agreement that allows the use of certain disputed patents and that in turn brings a benefit to the owner of the same. What is made clear is that It is an international agreementso it is also up to us European citizens.
As always happens in these cases, benefits and harms the user in equal parts. In a direct way, in the end they do not cease to be business issues that are somewhat distant from these, but their long-term application can be seen with two different glasses. On the one hand, positive in that we can find devices from one brand or another that draw on advances made by one of them. On the more pessimistic side there is always the idea that these types of agreements harm competition between the two.
Be that as it may, and as far as Huawei is concerned, it should provide some peace of mind at a time when air of controversy is breathed with Europe and the United States. However, that is already another matter and we will see if somehow, via Xiaomi patents, it serves to somehow face the harsh restrictions imposed against the company since the United States veto that began more than four years ago.
More information | Huawei
Cover image | stock | Huawei | Xiaomi
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