
Smartphone makers out there better start getting ready because Huawei is going to be asking for receipts after taking a tip from Mr. Wonderful’s playbook.
The Chinese tech giant is going to start charging royalties to those using its patented 5G technology (watch out Apple!). Huwaei has so far declared 3,007 5G patent families (the highest number of any company in the world!), so there’s a lot of money to be made there.
Huawei said it would be a “reasonable percentage royalty rate of the handset selling price, and a per unit royalty cap” of $2.50 for each smartphone able to connect to 5G and other mobile network generations. Still, their rates are going to be lower than competitors’ like Ericsson and Nokia (which just struck a deal with Samsung to use its 5G patents, btw).