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China Court Orders Samsung Units To Pay $11.6 Million To Huawei Over Patent Case (reuters.com)

Posted by msmash on from the paying-Chinese dept.

A Chinese court has ordered Samsung Electronics's mainland subsidiaries to pay 80 million yuan ($11.60 million) to Huawei Technologies for patent infringement, the China firm's first victory against Samsung on its legal challenges over intellectual property. From a report: Three units of Samsung have been ordered by the Quanzhou Intermediary Court to pay the sum for infringing a patent held by Huawei Device Co Limited, the handset unit of Huawei, the Quanzhou Evening News, a government-run newspaper, said on its website on Thursday. The verdict is the first on several lawsuits of Huawei against the South Korean technology giant. Huawei filed lawsuits against Samsung in May in courts in China and the United States -- the first by it against Samsung -- claiming infringements of smartphone patents. Samsung subsequently countersued Huawei in China for IP infringement.

42 comments

  1. LOL chinese law by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    China doesn't have laws, we all know it. Appeal to Trump he can drone the fucking chinks.

  2. Infringing what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The article does not say, no details, no other links, not much to discuss without that and I don't feel like googling, that's your job article submitter and you FAILED.

    1. Re:Infringing what? by sabbede · · Score: 2
      From ZDNet: "The Chinese company has reportedly filed suits in both the United States and China accusing its South Korean competitor of using its 4G cellular technology, operating systems and user interface software. In a statement, Huawei urged Samsung to obtain licensing agreements for those technologies, and to "work together with Huawei to jointly drive the industry forward.""

      I'm skeptical of the idea that Samsung would have any interest in infringing on their 4G patents, and find the OS and UI claims to be absurd. How does Huawei have a patent for Android?

    2. Re:Infringing what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It's not necessarily true that their patent suit is the same in the US and in China, but check out their filing in the US.
      https://www.scribd.com/doc/313702463/Huawei-v-Samsung

  3. That sounds like a real bargain! by Ihlosi · · Score: 1

    $11M sounds like small change for a patent infringement case.

    1. Re: That sounds like a real bargain! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think Samsung is a deplorable company, and yet this still smacks of Chinese court home cooking. That being said, how many times does Samsung have to get caught cheating before people wake up? Price fixing, bribery, IP theft, collusion, shipping unsafe products and trying to cover up the fires until they couldn't, etc.

      Fuck Samsung.

    2. Re:That sounds like a real bargain! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      $11M sounds like small change for a patent infringement case.

      That's chinese code word for bribe.
      Taiwan #1 China #4

  4. That's a bit rich by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    11M is piss in the ocean, barely a rounding error in business operations.

    What they want is propaganda, a story of so-called "Chinese innovation" taking down the evil THAAD-supporting, filthy constitutional republic next door. A story of Justice with Chinese Characters being done. A story of how the China Dream is Great Again under Dear Leader Uncle Xi.

    And if you think a Chinese patent is worth the same as an American one, I have a bridge in Kambash, Ordos, Inner Mongolia to sell.

    1. Re: That's a bit rich by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes yes yes! This exactly.

      Recently they were boycotting Lotte stores because they were angry about the Korea missile system. This is another anti Korea propaganda to keep brainwashing the masses there and keep the corrupt commies in power. It gets scarier and scarier every day.

      And as a Hong konger, 2047 is ticking closer and closer, and it really scares the hell out of me. Fuck off China. Hope all you commies burn in hell.

      - Angry Hong Konger

    2. Re: That's a bit rich by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Corporation controlling a large part of the south korea GDP vs "communist" state, is there any difference

    3. Re: That's a bit rich by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Huge difference. Samsung can't make laws, and if they make enough stupid decisions, will go bankrupt, as S Korea is a free capitalist democratic country.

      China on the other hand, only have the Chinese government in power, they can't fail, they write the law however they want, and the people have no freedom to change anything because they have no power.

      Huge fucking difference here.

  5. TOP FUCKING KECK! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    China court enforces patent law!

    1. Re: TOP FUCKING KECK! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      More like kangaroo court. Wouldn't be surprised if the Samsung guys were forced to say certain things under threats of torture or making family members go missing, etc.

      And even if it was a fair court, if the case had gone the other way, they would have ignored the result, just like they do for the UN case against Philippines over the stupid islands that every Asian country seems to want.

      - Angry Hong Konger

  6. Lol China by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Have you ever been to China? Everything there is a ripoff of western brands. And copyright infringement is everywhere, and practically encouraged by the government, to give Chinese brands an advantage of superior western ones. And of course many western brands, like google and facebook, are blocked outright, the only reason stuff like baidu even had a chance.

    So, lol China. What a fucking joke.

    Sincerely,
    An angry hong konger

    1. Re:Lol China by hackingbear · · Score: 0

      I've been to Hong Kong, full of pirate goods there as well. And I told you the same applied to the USA. The USA had stolen/copied much of its textile tech from the UK. Before that the West had stolen silk making tech from China. This is a guilt that every country has committed. After they developed, they then become patent trolls. I guess people in KH are too naive to know what "patent trolls" are.

      I dealt with a Hong Kong company which makes a women underware brand (Meizi); they make good products and sell very well in China. Then they want to sell in the US. I told there is not a chance because the American culture will not accept a brand from Hong Kong.

      What I don't understand is that why many young Hong Kongers hate mainland China so much. I think they looked down at mainlanders before because China was very poor and now become envious because (the developed part of) China already surpass HK. But study the history of Hong Kong, without trading with China, Hong Kongers would be eating shits now (or their parents would not migrate to Hong Kong from China.)

      And what about democracy? What a joke. LOL you want HK and China to become India, Mexico, Brazil, or the USA? Remember China has 1.3 billion people and it pulled itself out of poverty in 50 years.

    2. Re:Lol China by jandersen · · Score: 1

      Have you ever been to China?

      I have - probably around 30 times over the last 20 years. Have you?

      Everything there is a ripoff of western brands. And copyright infringement is everywhere, and practically encouraged by the government, to give Chinese brands an advantage of superior western ones. And of course many western brands, like google and facebook, are blocked outright, the only reason stuff like baidu even had a chance.

      That's not what I have seen in my many visits. Sure, you can find fake goods in the markets, just like you can in similar markets in Europe and I wouldn't be surprised if they can be found in the US. Or Hong Kong, since you claim to be from Hong Kong. It is true that when I came there in the beginning, there weren't many Western style luxury goods, but I don't think it is true that things were of poor quality; they were just different - possibly more suited to Chinese needs and expectations at the time. This has changed a lot, and I think it is a shame that so many good, Chinese things disappear in the name of modernisation and are replaced by anonymous, Western style stuff. China was a developing nation when I first came there, and they are still developing, as opposed to many Western nations. And, you know what? A lot of the coolest, new gadgets seem to turn up over there before they come to the US or Europe. That doesn't sound backwards to me.

  7. Return on investment by XB-70 · · Score: 1
    ...And that 11.6 Million award cost Huawei Device Co Limited just how much in "legal" fees?

    Read between the lines, folks.

    --
    *** Don't be dull.***
  8. Oh? by sabbede · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I don't think I'm alone in my skepticism of Chinese courts, IP enforcement, and the validity of their patents. Huawei is an imitator, what patents could they have for Samsung to violate?

    1. Re:Oh? by prunus.avium · · Score: 2

      Imitator? That's putting it lightly. I work in the telecom industry. There was a time when Huawei boards could run Nortel firmware.

    2. Re:Oh? by phorm · · Score: 1

      I've also heard of Huawei switches which basically an IOS clone.
      A lot of early tech companies started out as "imitators" before they got to the point of producing their own products. I've been seen a number of things from Huawei which appear to be of their own design and quite decent quality (like some of their smartwatches).

  9. Serious question by The+Evil+Atheist · · Score: 0

    Which court wouldn't routinely rule in favour of their own country or union's companies?

    --
    Those who do not learn from commit history are doomed to regress it.
    1. Re:Serious question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The United States of America, which is largely a first-world country. Case in point: A few years ago, some treasure hunters managed to find a sunken Spanish galleon somewhere off the coast of Florida. On the galleon were many millions of dollars worth of gold coins and bars. The Spanish government sued, stating that the gold rightfully belonged to Spain. The U.S. courts ruled in favor of Spain and the treasure hunters, who are Americans in an American company, had to give the gold to Spain after having spent a lot of time and money to do the research and work to find and recover the treasure.

    2. Re: Serious question by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      Those who are just.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    3. Re:Serious question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And the WORST PART..
      IT was NOT Spanish gold!
      It was fucking stolen from the natives, made cast with slave labor, and soaked in the blood of the murdered and raped.

      If anything it should have gone to some indigenous welfare fund... Not the modern government that wants a chunk of atrocity for profit.
      SICK!

  10. China respects patents? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm confused?!?? I thought that China didn't have patents. Can somebody enlighten me? (Maybe I'm confusing copyright with patents?)

  11. Nortel IP thiefs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    The entire creation of HUAWEI as a company was done with Nortel IP. Nortel was stupid enough to outsource to China in the first place. China turned around and went "we made this" with everything. They were so bad with it that they didn't even bother taking out the code notations of the Nortel engineers. China was so hungry they had the nortel offices bugged top to bottom. Our DND tried to move into Nortels old campus and had to scrap plans because, and I'm not joking, too many bugs.

  12. Pot, meet Mr. Kettle by Jerrry · · Score: 1

    Is this the same Huawei who copied Cisco firmware wholesale and didn't even bother to change the copyright notices?

  13. Comedy Gold by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Chinese scam artists now have their own court. Can't wait for the ruling where they demand to be compensated for not having had the Y2K bubble that they have invented.

  14. Only in China.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's rich! The company that came grew at the expense of ripping off Cisco's IP is being paid damages from IP violations.

  15. "China court"? by XanC · · Score: 1

    Is "China" an adjective now? Would you say "America court rules against..."?

  16. China favoring it's own.. by evolutionary · · Score: 2

    The Chinese "courts" are really a political engine generally passing down "divine" rule. I've known a few layers from China who all tell me that the first and foremost thing you do to be successful is to attend networking events where judges are found. All have told me it's a corrupt system. And since this is a Chinese, is it any surprise it favors it's own?

    --
    "Imagination is more important than knowledge" - Einstein
  17. What were the patents? by WindBourne · · Score: 1

    Seriously, large Chinese companies have a habit of seeing ideas/technology elsewhere and then filing patent claim in China. It is quite possible that these can be taken out, esp the OS and UI ones

    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  18. Sino-Korean Politics Fueling This by Koreantoast · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There is a larger Sino-Korean political conflict right now that adds a lot of context to this judgment. The PRC government is angry at South Korea for permitting the deployment of an American THAAD missile defense system on the peninsula. The South Koreans allowed it because of the continuing missile launches by the North, but China views it as another step in American encirclement of China. In retaliation, the PRC has waged an economic attack on South Korea to punish them: banning Chinese tour groups from visiting Korea, suddenly shutting down Korean retailers and other businesses in China on administrative grounds, banning of South Korean imports, and a general harassment of Korean economic interests across the board. This could easily be just another salvo in this spat.

    The irony of this hamfisted approach by the Chinese is that its actually galvanized Korean political sentiment against them. Whereas before, there was a robust debate on whether or not to deploy THAAD, with the anti-THAAD faction ascendant following the fall of the Korean president, the economic retaliation has temporarily shut down that debate. In polls, China has even passed Japan as the most hated country by South Koreans after North Korea due to this kerfuffle. If you know anything about the love-hate relationship between South Korea and Japan, this is a BIG deal.

  19. Ah, the Chinese... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    IMHO, they're nothing but thieves, liars, copyright infringers, and greedy money grubbing bastards.

  20. Samsung Versus Huawei by kaatochacha · · Score: 0

    The odds of Samsung--a Korean company being punished by China for daring to attempt to protect themselves from North Korea--winning against a Chinese company in China are roughly equal to me being declared the new Chinese Emperor.

  21. Re: Samsung by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In the uk the dogs bollocks means something really good

  22. lol china copyright infringment, rofl by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    lol china asking to pay someone who copy its shit!?!!?! LOLOLOL GOOD ONE this made my day...