Qualcomm Sues Transition, Largest Smartphone Maker Without Snapdragon Chip

Qualcomm sued Transition, (photo; x @GamersLiveFR ·)

JAKARTA - Qualcomm has launched a lawsuit against Transition, one of the world's largest smartphone manufacturers, regarding patent infringement.

Reported by IP Fray on LinkedIn, Qualcomm sued Transition for four essential non-standard patents. Although specific patents are not stated, this is noteworthy because Qualcomm is rarely involved in this kind of lawsuit. Generally, as mentioned in the post, Qualcomm leverages their chipsets and the dependence of many other companies on the chip to make licensing agreements when patent infringement occurs. However, with Transition, Qualcomm doesn't really have the option.

As WinFuture revealed, Transition does not sell smartphones with Qualcomm chips. Despite being the fourth largest smartphone manufacturer in the world by 2024 according to Statista (behind Samsung, Apple, and Xiaomi), Transition currently mostly uses chips from MediaTek as well as some chips from Unisoc to power their smartphones. Snapdragon chips have been used on several devices in the past, but none are actively sold today.

Transition brands include Itel, Infinity, and perhaps the best known, Tecno.

These brands have grown rapidly over the past few years in the budget and medium market, all without relying on Qualcomm.

This lawsuit could result in Transition being required to pay a license fee to Qualcomm, but it's unclear how this will impact Transition. But with the focus of this brand on low-price devices, any margin cuts could be a major blow.

The Financial Times also mentioned that Transition is also being sued by Phillips and Nokia, who reportedly pressured Transition to make payments for the use of patented technology used in their smartphones.

In the report, a Transition spokesperson said the company had "signed a standard 5G patent license agreement with Qualcomm" and was in "process of fulfilling the agreement."