Huawei Will Sue Verizon over Patent Infringement

On Thursday, Shenzhen-based company Huawei filed a lawsuit against the U.S. telecom giant, Verizon. The reason behind the lawsuit? Infringements of Huawei's intellectual property rights.

According to Huawei, the U.S. company is using technology that is protected by 12 of its U.S. patents.

Having already approached Verizon a number of times, and unable to agree on license terms, Huawei is now suing the telecoms operator.

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Huawei's patents

Huawei itself has a small presence in the U.S., and the presence it does have has been a bit tense after legal battles with the nation in 2019. 

"Shenzhen-based Huawei is one of the world’s most prolific patent holders, with more than 80,000 worldwide and 10,000 in the U.S. alone, the company said in a statement." https://t.co/bta6t07irb

— Kathryn Kyte (@loadedlove) February 6, 2020

However, American companies, such as Verizon, use patented technology from Huawei. Out of the 87,000 patents Huawei holds globally, the U.S. uses 11,000 of those. Thousands of these patents will fall under the category of "standard essential parts", which are necessary technologies for mobile networks including 3G, 4G, and 5G. 

As per Huawei, they have been trying to negotiate royalty payments with Verizon, only to be "unable to reach an agreement on license terms." 

After much time spent on this, Song Liuping, chief legal officer at Huawei told CNBC, "For years now we have successfully negotiated patent license agreements with many companies. Unfortunately, when no agreement can be reached, we have no choice but to seek a legal remedy."

I'm interested to see how this plays out. And wouldn't it be great if U.S. companies had this kind of recourse for intellectual property rights in #China? #IP #Huawei https://t.co/ECekKuZPIG via @WSJ

— Martijn Rasser (@MartijnRasser) February 6, 2020

Song continued "This is the common practice in the industry. Huawei is simply asking that Verizon respect Huawei’s investment in research and development by either paying for the use of our patents or refraining from using them in its products and services."

Ranging from computer networking to video communications, the 12 patents that Huawei is claiming Verizon has infringed on will have "greatly profited" the U.S. operator. Within the lawsuit, Huawei has claimed that Verizon made $29.8 billion in revenue in 2018 alone from its fiber-optic communications network. 

Huawei files patent infringement lawsuits against Verizon, seeking compensation for Verizon's use of patented technology protected by 12 of Huawei’s U.S. #patents. Huawei respects and protects all #IP rights, and advocates for authorized use. Read the full statement. #HuaweiNews

— Huawei (@Huawei) February 6, 2020