Xiaomi called out in telecoms patent dispute

A lawsuit filed in China last week accused Beijing-based Xiaomi of developing mobile devices which contain patent infringing technology.

The complaint was filed at Jiangsu Province Nanjing Intermediate People’s Court on Thursday, May 10.

Yulong Computer Telecommunication Scientific (Shenzhen) Company, a provider of telecommunications equipment and a subsidiary of Coolpad Group, initiated the suit.

The complaint accused Xiaomi, a developer of consumer electronics and software, of infringing one of Yulong’s invention patents (Chinese patent number ZL200610034036.7). The patent covers a “multi-mode mobile communication terminal interface system and method for call recording”.

According to the suit, a number of mobile devices produced by Xiaomi, including the Mi MIX 2, Redmi Note 5, and Redmi 5 Plus, feature technology which infringes the multi-mode communication patent.

Yulong claimed Xiaomi’s infringing activities include “acts such as production and manufacture, promise to sale and sale of infringing products”. Xiaomi’s use of the invention patent is without any authorisation or licence, Yulong alleged.

The statement released by Coolpad said Yulong has requested recovery of the economic loss suffered due to the patent infringement, as well as reasonable attornies'’ fees paid to stop the acts of infringement.

As noted by local news outlet the South China Morning Post, the timing of the suit has come at a “sensitive” time for Xiaomi, which has recently applied to be a publically listed company in Hong Kong. At $10 billion, Xiaomi’s initial public offering would be the fourth-largest in Hong Kong.

The local news outlet also reported that Xiaomi had filed a motion to dismiss Yulong’s claims at the Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court, as Yulong filed a similar infringement complaint against Xiaomi at the Shenzhen court in January.

Yulong is not the only company to pick an IP fight with Xiaomi.

In December 2017, the EU General Court backed Apple in its trademark dispute with Xiaomi, which sought to register ‘Mi Pad’ as an EU trademark. The court affirmed the European Union Intellectual Property Office’s decision, noting the high degree of similarity between the applied-for mark and Apple’s ‘iPad’ mark.