Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Samsung”) and Samsung Electronics America Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Samsung”) have filed a lawsuit against China Mobile Communications Equipment Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “China Mobile”) in the Eastern District Court of the State of Pennsylvania, USA.

According to the complaint, Samsung mentioned the patent license agreement between China Mobile and Apple, and claimed that China Mobile violated the “non-discrimination” principle compared to the agreement between China Mobile and Apple.

Samsung argued that compared to Apple, Samsung used fewer 4G and 5G patents from China Mobile, and therefore China Mobile violated the FRAND obligations and good faith negotiation principles; in addition, Samsung also mentioned that China Mobile filed a patent infringement and fee rate determination lawsuit against it in the Intermediate People’s Court of Fuzhou City, Fujian Province, China on December 2022, not only demanding that the court set 4G and 5G license fee rates, but also demanding an injunction. Samsung argued that using an injunction threatened to achieve reverse engineering, and also violated the FRAND principle and good faith negotiation principle.

In addition, Samsung also questioned the quality and value of China Mobile’s patents: “Considering that CATT or CICT participated in standardization process , including its participation in 3GPP working group , China Mobile cannot reliably claim that it did not know that its patents originated from others’ work.”

On February 6, 2023, China International Telecommunication Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “China Telecom”) issued a notice about its subsidiary’s lawsuit against Samsung. The notice showed that China Telecom’s wholly-owned subsidiary China Mobile Communications Equipment Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “China Mobile”) and its wholly-owned subsidiary Shanghai China Mobile Communications Equipment Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Shanghai China Mobile”) had filed a lawsuit against Samsung (China) Investment Co., Ltd. et al. for patent infringement at the Intermediate People’s Court of Fuzhou City, Fujian Province, China. The case was officially opened.