Slashdot Mirror
China Court Orders Samsung Units To Pay $11.6 Million To Huawei Over Patent Case (reuters.com)
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.
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.
China court enforces patent law!
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
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?
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?
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.
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
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.