KIANEWS Nokia smartphone maker HMD Global filed an antitrust complaint in the EU against VoiceAge EVS
02. 12. 2022 Friday / By: Robert Denes / Industrial / Exact time: BST / Print this page
HMD Global Oy, the exclusive licensee of Nokia-branded smartphones, has filed a complaint with EU antitrust authorities against VoiceAge EVS' patent practices and royalty rates.
Disputes over royalties have fascinated the telecommunications industry for the past decade. The biggest profile was between Apple ( AAPL.O ) and Samsung Electronics ( 005930.KS ) and Apple and Qualcomm ( QCOM.O ), which the companies eventually settled among themselves.
HMD and VoiceAge EVS (VAEVS), which was formed in 2018 to license Canadian technology company VoiceAge Corp's advanced voice services patent portfolio, are battling in courts in Germany, the United States and Brazil over technology patents related to voice calls.
On Thursday, HMD appealed to the EU's competition authority with its complaint, according to a statement published on its website.
"HMD has also now filed competition complaints against VAEVS with the European Commission to seek the authorities' intervention on issues such as over-standardisation, open standards requirements and apparent non-FRAND claims and behaviour," the company said.
FRAND refers to the fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory conditions for patents that are essential to a technical standard.
The EU's competition watchdog said it had received the complaint and would assess it based on standard procedures. VoiceAge EVS did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
Via Link"VAEVS' published alleged programmatic royalty rates, which are available on its website, exceed the average royalties actually collected by almost all major licensors at the average selling price of HMD smartphones," HMD said.
