Xiaomi Renews AAC Patent Pool Agreement With Via Licensing

On July 20, Via Licensing announced that Xiaomi has renewed its licensing agreement for the Via Advanced Audio Coding Patent Pool, which covers the field of smartphones.

In January 2017, Xiaomi and Via reached an agreement for Xiaomi to use patented technology under the Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) patent pool. Xiaomi products all over the world can use this technology, and it thus could enable consumers to enjoy high-quality audio through high compression efficiency, and reduce the consumed traffic and computing requirements.

Xu Ran, General Manager of Global Business Development and IP Strategy of Xiaomi, said: "We are happy to continue our agreement with Via's AAC patent pool, a balanced collaborative licensing model that seeks to address the unique challenges of our market. Xiaomi customers will continue to enjoy this high-quality audio format."

Via Licensing is a global provider of intellectual property solutions dedicated to innovation in partnership with tech firms, entertainment companies and universities around the world. Via develops and manages licensing projects for highly innovative companies in the audio, wireless, broadcasting and automotive markets.

As a global leading consumer products company, Xiaomi has invested heavily in patents. In April this year, Lei Jun, CEO of Xiaomi, said that the firm had obtained 25,000 patents worldwide, and it had another 20,000 patent applications under review.

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Xiaomi has applied for more than 2,300 patents worldwide and has been granted more than 950 patents in imaging technology. In terms of charging technology, it has achieved the industry's first 120W single battery cell charging technology and 200W wired charging technology, and it has over 1,400 global patent applications for charging technology and over 370 global patent applications for wired fast charging. Xiaomi has updated MIUI for 544 weeks, longer than the existence of some smartphone manufacturers. MIUI has more than 510 million active users worldwide.