According to the decision announced by the Intermediate People's Court of Hangzhou, the Korean electronics maker Samsung has been ordered to pay CNY50 million compensation to the Zhejiang-based Holley Communications for infringing the patent of Holley's GSM/CDMA dual-mode handsets.

 

This he patent infringement case decision is the largest-ever compensation amount in China's mobile phone industry.

 

Holley Communications applied for the patent of technologies that allow mobile phones to operate on both CDMA and GSM networks on January 15, 2002. Its patent covers the major hardware design theories and the realization methods of GSM/CDMA dual-mode communications products.

 

On April 9, 2007, Holley Communications sued Samsung at the Intermediate People's Court of Hangzhou, a city near Shanghai. The company said Samsung violated its patent and required the defendant to stop the violation and pay compensation. On May 8, 2007, Samsung handed in a request to China's State Intellectual Property Office and asked the office to declare that the patent of Holley Communications was invalid and withdraw the patent.

 

After six months of investigation, the State Intellectual Property Office announced on December 14, 2007 that the patent of Holley Communications was valid. Base on this fact, the Intermediate People's Court of Hangzhou started to hear the case on May 14, 2008 and announced the decision on December 19, 2008, ending the 20-month dispute.

 

Ge Chen, executive director for Holley Communications, told local Chinese media that the CNY50 million compensation does not equal the total economic loss of Holley Communications. Samsung has sold over 700,000 mobile phones that contain Holley Communications' patent technologies and these products are still sold in markets. The compensation is only part of the sales. He emphasized that Holley Communications will continue to seek compensation from Samsung.