Qualcomm had filed a lawsuit against Meizu earlier this year, the US-based processor manufacturer stated that Meizu infringed upon their patents, and named that as a reason for a lawsuit. Well, it seems like the two companies have finally settled the dispute, as Qualcomm just released an official statement saying that the two companies have signed a global patent licensing agreement when it comes to 3G / 4G technology, read on.
Back when Qualcomm sued Meizu, the China-based smartphone manufacturer was quick to respond, they’ve stated that they’re ready to settle the dispute as soon as possible, and that they respect Qualcomm’s right to use legal measures if they feel unsatisfied with the current status of negotiations. Fast forward a couple of months, and the two companies have finally reached an agreement it seems. Qualcomm has granted Meizu a worldwide royalty-bearing patent license to develop, manufacture and sell CDMA2000, WCDMA and 4G LTE (GSM, TD-SCDMA and LTE-TDD included) complete devices. In other words, Meizu is now free to include Qualcomm-patented 3G and 4G technology in their smartphones on a global scale, and this basically resolves all patent disputes between the two companies.
As a reminder, Qualcomm issued legal action against Meizu a while back for Meizu-branded devices which were being sold in China, Germany, France and the United States. “Today, we are focusing on our vision with better clarity, and striving to become the top designer brand for high-tech products,” said Bai Yongxiang, President of Meizu, and added the following: “We are confident this cooperation with Qualcomm will add tremendous value to our user, channels, shareholders and employees”. Meizu is mainly selling smartphones in China, but they’re also active in a number of other markets on a smaller scale, as already mentioned. We are expecting Meizu to make a bolder push to markets outside of China in the coming years, and this patent licensing agreement will certainly help them do that, as they won’t be distracted with such legal issues. Meizu had introduced a number of smartphones this year, and their Meizu PRO 6 Plus flagship actually landed quite recently. This smartphone will become available in a global variant as well, soon, and it will be interesting to see what has Meizu prepared for us for 2017, as a number of interesting designs leaked recently.