Huawei sues Samsung over 11 standard essential patents – full details

Written by Scott Bicheno
25 May 2016 @ 11:41

Chinese telecoms giant Huawei is suing similarly huge Korean tech company Samsung for allegedly infringing 11 wireless communications and software patents.

Using the standard ‘we think people should pay for stuff they use’ patent legalese, Huawei pointed out it’s a major holder of standard essential patents relating to cellular networks and it likes nothing more than to license these out on a FRAND (fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory) basis. However, when other people use those patents without such a license Huawei feels entitled to call in the lawyers.

“Huawei believes that industry players should work together to push the industry forward through open, joint innovation,” said Ding Jianxing, President of Huawei’s Intellectual Property Rights Department. “While respecting others’ patents, we will also protect our own. We have seen a large number of patent cross-licensing agreements signed in the industry to ensure legitimate use of technologies, as this is the basis for the healthy development of the smartphone industry.

“With such a belief, we have actively negotiated with other patent holders in the industry for cross-licensing over the years. Thus far, we have signed cross-licensing agreements with dozens of our competitors. We hope Samsung will respect Huawei’s R&D investment and patents, stop infringing our patents and get the necessary license from Huawei, and work together with Huawei to jointly drive the industry forward.”

That’s about it from Huawei, apart from pointing out that these patents relate to LTE, operating systems, and user interface, and Samsung has yet to pass comment. For anyone who wants to know more here’s the full list of patents as detailed in the US filing found via the Verge.