Huawei and Qualcomm's negotiations enter final stage, Huawei to pay Qualcomm 500 million in patent fees every year

According to foreign media reports, Qualcomm and Huawei are negotiating a patent settlement, which has been confirmed by Qualcomm. Although the progress of the settlement between the two parties is unclear, internal sources have revealed that the negotiations have reached the final stage. According to industry sources, Huawei may pay more than $500 million in patent fees each year for this settlement with Qualcomm, but it is far less than the $4.5 billion in Apple's settlement. This is mainly because Huawei has a lot of patents in the communications field, especially in 5G technology, so Huawei can conduct cross-patent licensing with Qualcomm, thereby greatly reducing the core licensing patent fees.

      In April, with the settlement between Apple and Qualcomm, the settlement between Huawei and Qualcomm was also accelerated. The two parties had already been in contact for patent settlement, but in terms of the specific amount of patent fees paid by Huawei, it was far lower than Apple. The final result is expected to be announced at the end of May or early June. As for how much patent fees Huawei will pay to Qualcomm, there is no accurate statement yet, but it will definitely be cheaper than now, that is, no more than US$600 million/year, while in the past, Huawei paid US$100 million per quarter.

      In January, Qualcomm revealed that they had signed a short-term licensing agreement with Huawei, and Huawei would pay Qualcomm $150 million in patent fees (about RMB 1 billion) every quarter. The short-term agreement will expire at the end of June this year. Before this, under the long-term agreement between the two parties, Huawei paid Qualcomm $100 million in licensing fees every quarter.

      Earlier, Qualcomm was subject to an antitrust investigation by China's National Development and Reform Commission and received a huge antitrust fine. Subsequently, Qualcomm lowered its patent fee standards for Chinese smartphone manufacturers and signed patent licensing agreements with many smartphone manufacturers. Qualcomm began to gain a better cooperation environment in China, and its Snapdragon processors were also recognized by Chinese mobile phone consumers.

      According to foreign media reports, the patent licensing agreement between Qualcomm and Huawei may be different from that of other mobile phone manufacturers, because Huawei invests a lot of money in communication technology research and development every year and is also a major holder of global telecommunications patents. Therefore, Huawei and Qualcomm can conduct cross-patent licensing to reduce the level of patent fee burden.