28 November 2014 – ZTE Corporation was disappointed by today’s decision by the UK High Court of Justice Chancery Division, which upheld Vringo’s claims on Patent 1212919 relating to one particular function of mobile communication systems. Before the trial, two other patent claims were withdrawn by Vringo, making the case centered solely on Patent 1212919. "The impact of the decision on ZTE’s business operations in the UK is limited as no ZTE products containing technology related to the ‘919’ patent are currently shipped in the country. ZTE customers in the UK will not be affected by the court decision,” said Shen Jianfeng, Chief IPR Officer of ZTE. “ZTE also notes that the equivalent patent has already been deemed invalid by patent authorities in China, while Vringo’s overall case was also weakened by its pre-trial withdrawals of other claims” said Mr. Shen. “ZTE is willing to negotiate royalty fees with license holders based on FRAND principles, while reserving the right to pursue further legal action to protect the interests of the company against the activities of patent trolls (Non-Practicing Entities) that use the threat of litigation to support their demands for unfair licensing payments." he added. Background Vringo acquired approximately 500 Patents from Nokia, without any intention of using them to create products or services, but simply to secure licensing payments from technology companies. Within a month, Vringo issued a demand to ZTE to license the entire portfolio, and just 11 days later, they brought a lawsuit in the UK alleging the infringement of three patents. By the time the case arrived at trial, Vringo had withdrawn two of those three patent claims. Since 2012, Vringo has sought injunctions around the world to pressure ZTE to paying unreasonable licensing fees. The equivalent of Patent 1212919 has also been litigated in Germany and Brazil. In China, the equivalent patent was declared invalid by the Patent Re-examination Board of the State Intellectual Property Office in September. ZTE is a world-leading technology innovator, and both a licensor and licensee of IPR. According to the World Intellectual Property Organization, ZTE submitted 2,309 filings under the Patent Cooperation Treaty in 2013, the second-highest total globally. ZTE also ranked No. 1 in the WIPO’s PCT application tables in 2011 and 2012. ZTE respects the intellectual property of other companies, and has signed dozens of global licensing agreements with holders including Qualcomm, Siemens, Ericsson, Microsoft and Dolby Laboratories.
.png){kind=icon}
.png){kind=icon}
.png){kind=icon}
.png){kind=icon}