Tecno and Infinix Sued by Qualcomm for Violating Intellectual Property

Transsion, a company that manufactures devices under the Tecno, Infinix and Itel brands is being sued by Qualcomm and Phillips for allegedly using their intellectual property without paying a license. In a Financial Times report, Shenzen-based Transsion is also under pressure from Nokia to pay for a license to use technology whose patents are held by the leading Finnish telecommunications company.Over the past few years, Transsion began expanding its wings to more countries after only focusing on the African continent where it holds 48% of the smartphone market. Previously in 2019, Huawei sued Transsion for allegedly violating intellectual property.A Transsion spokesperson said they are committed to paying 5G licensing fees held by third parties. The short-term impact that may occur is that the selling price of Infinix and Tecno will increase because the technology royalty fee that will be charged is high.Qualcomm previously successfully won a case against Apple over modem technology patent infringement. As a solution, Apple agreed to pay the requested compensation and use Qualcomm modems until 2027. Nokia, on the other hand, managed to get Oppo devices banned in several EU markets until royalty payments were received.