US chipmaker Qualcomm Inc. has concluded a 14-month antitrust investigation by the Chinese Government by agreeing to pay a record fine of US$ 975 Mn. In addition to the financial penalty, Qualcomm has been required to lower its royalty rates on patents used in China, a measure intended to benefit domestic handset manufacturers such as Xiaomi and Huawei.<\/p>\n
Qualcomm Inc. faces similar antitrust scrutiny in the United States and Europe. South Korea has also commenced an investigation into comparable monopolistic practices by the company. The Chinese penalty, though the largest of its kind, represents approximately 8 per cent of Qualcomm’s annual sales in China, a sum the company can absorb while retaining the majority of its patent licences. Following the announcement, Qualcomm Inc. shares rose 1.6 per cent to US$ 68.12.<\/p>\n
Qualcomm has elected not to contest the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC)’s finding that it infringed upon Chinese antitrust law. The company has reduced its 2015 share-price forecast by US$ 0.58 per share in light of these patent-related liabilities.<\/p>\n
Commenting on whether the Chinese outcome would influence proceedings in the United States and Europe, Derek Aberle, President of Qualcomm Inc., said: “We fully respect their authority, but we don’t believe it’s likely that other agencies will necessarily meet similar conclusions.”<\/em><\/p>\n China represents a significant commercial opportunity for Qualcomm, given the rapid growth of 4G networks and demand for advanced smartphones. Some industry analysts suggest that the revised Chinese patent rules may simplify the process by which Qualcomm collects royalties on device patents and enters into new vendor contracts. The outcome of parallel proceedings in the United States, Europe, and South Korea, and their broader impact on Qualcomm’s global operations, remain to be observed.<\/p>\n This article is for general information and does not constitute legal advice. Readers should consult a qualified attorney before acting on any matter discussed here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Qualcomm Inc. has agreed to pay a record antitrust fine and lower patent royalties in China, concluding a major investigation. The outcome may affect ongoing antitrust cases against Qualcomm in other jurisdictions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":40,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2228,1807,1278,12834,7025,2315,3534],"class_list":["post-21099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-intellectual-property","tag-antitrust","tag-china","tag-competition-law","tag-ndrc","tag-patent-royalties","tag-qualcomm","tag-technology-patents"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21099"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":149736,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21099\/revisions\/149736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bananaip.com\/intellepedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Disclaimer<\/h2>\n