26 May 2015, Munich, Germany – ZTE Corporation’s subsidiary in Germany filed Nullity suits to the Federal Patent Court of Germany requesting for the invalidation of three patents held by Vringo Inc. and its subsidiaries.

The applications by ZTE Deutschland GmBH were based on grounds of lack of novelty and inventive elements. These three patents relate to information collecting in intelligent networks, time difference measurement for positioning in cellular networks, and Push-To-Talk over cellular networks.

For these same reasons, ZTE filed an Opposition last week before the European Patent Office to invalidate Vringo’s Patent EP1, 842, 386, which relates to data transfers in mobile communications.

In China, the Patent Re-examination Board of the State Intellectual Property Office has so far invalidated 13 Vringo patents since September 2014, raising concerns about the quality of the U.S. company’s intellectual property assets. In February, ZTE applied to the United States Patent and Trademark Office to re-examine five Vringo patents.

In January, the District Court of Dusseldorf rejected Vringo’s claims against ZTE over patents ‘EP 136’ and ‘EP 941’ that allegedly relate to hotspot functionality in mobile devices and the use of Google Maps respectively. Vringo Germany has filed an appeal against the decisions at the Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf. These appeal proceedings are still pending.

ZTE is committed to defending the company against actions brought by Vringo in Europe, Asia and South America. As a globally-leading technology innovator, ZTE respects the intellectual property of other companies and is willing to negotiate royalty fees with license holders based on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) principles.

ZTE reserves the right to challenge patents whose validity has yet to be determined. The European Commission had previously provided guidance upholding the right of licensees to challenge the validity of patents in court, on the premise that companies and ultimately consumers should not have to pay for patents that are in fact invalid and should never have been granted. The European Commission had also established that potential licensees of standard essential patents are free to challenge the validity of patents, without prejudice to whether they are considered willing licensees.

ZTE has filed applications for more than 60,000 patents, with over 17,000 granted. ZTE ranked third globally in patent applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) in the latest annual report published by the World Intellectual Property Organization in March. For five consecutive years, ZTE has been ranked as one of the Global Top-3 by WIPO.