ZTE hails lifting injunction in patent case

Chinese telecom major ZTE Corporation Monday welcomed the recent lifting of an injunction by the Delhi High Court in a patent case filed against it by US-based Vringo Inc and its Indian subsidiary.

"We reserve the right to pursue further legal action against Vringo and its subsidiaries to protect our interests," ZTE's Indian subsidiary said in a statement here.

The New York-based Vringo is engaged in the monetisation of IP (intellectual property) and mobile technologies.

The high court granted the ex-parte injunction against some of ZTE products, including base station controllers based on GSM technology Nov 8, 2013.

"We are also committed to defend against patent-related claims of Vringo entities in litigations across Europe, Asia and South America," the statement said.

As a leading technology innovator, ZTE said it respects the IP of other firms, though it has several global IP-based agreements with patent holders like Ericsson, Siemens, Dolby Labs, Qualcomm and Microsoft.

"We are committed to invest in IP and compliance management to safeguard our business operations and commercial interests," the statement said.

ZTE invested 40-billion Renminbi ($6.5 billion) on research and development in the past five years.

Till the first half of this year, the company has filed applications for about 53,000 patents globally and was granted 17,000 so far.