No you did not read that wrong, Huawei is suing Samsung over patent infringement on its mobile and cellular technology.
This will be a first from a Chinese company as often not, they are the ones copying everything in the world…right! But not in this case.
According to the lawsuit filed in California and Shenzhen, Huawei is accusing Samsung in the United States and China, of infringing on its intellectual property, including valuable patents relating to cellular communications technology and software which are being currently used in Samsung’s mobile phones. Huawei, has over 50,000 patents pending on LTE, operating software and user interface technologies, the company has invest over US$9 billion in research and development.
In press statement, Ding Jianxing, President of Huawei’
s Intellectual Property Rights Department, remarked, “Huawei believes that industry players should work together to push the industry forward through open, joint innovation. 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.” Ding added, “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.”
Samsung has however, yet to comment on the case, its deja vu all over again for the telco community with one time Apple and the Korean manufacturer we are logger heads. But this will be an industry first, with a Chinese technology company taking on the worlds biggest smartphone maker. Interesting to see how this pans out, as we think ego and pride is at stake here more than anything else.
