At the start of the year, Qualcomm announced patent licensing deals with three Chinese companies, hinting at a flood of such agreements and the unblocking of a significant bottleneck in the chip giant’s revenues. For much of last year, Qualcomm was suffering from the after-effects of a Chinese antitrust probe of its licensing practices. Many patent users in the country had withheld their payments, or refused to sign or renew deals, until the outcome of the investigation was known. Although Qualcomm came to a settlement with the Chinese authorities in February, it complained that it was still proving difficult to bring all the vendors into line. A major breakthrough came in December with the announcement of a patents pact with…