Huawei and InterDigital agree licence, end patent litigation
US mobile research company InterDigital has agreed a patent licence with Chinese smartphone maker Huawei after two years of negotiations.
The two had been at odds over access to InterDigital patents covering the use of essential telecommunications standards like 5G in smartphones.
Huawei claimed that InterDigital was refusing to license access to its patents on fair terms. The US company responded with a lawsuit, filed in the UK in December 2019, accusing Huawei of infringing its IP.
In a filing at the US Securities Exchange Commission yesterday April 28, InterDigital said that it had agreed to settle all outstanding litigation with Huawei, including a separate complaint filed by the Chinese company in its home city of Shenzhen.
InterDigital said the settlement was in connection with a licence granting Huawei access to its patents, on a non-exclusive basis, until December 31, 2023.
The agreement covers Huawei devices equipped with 3G, 4G, and 5G technology.
Specifically, the licence allows Huawei phones to use patented InterDigital technology related to Wi-Fi and high-efficiency video coding (HEVC).
Fair and reasonable terms
In its December 2019 lawsuit, filed at the English High Court, InterDigital accused Huawei of infringing four UK patents. It asked the court to impose a so-called ‘FRAND injunction’, as it had done in a separate case between Huawei and software company Unwired Planet.
That would have meant Huawei would have had to enter into the terms of a licence that the English court declared to be fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND), or be barred from using the patents in the UK.
InterDigital brought the case in the UK amid a debate over which courts have the authority to determine the rates of a global FRAND licence.
The UK Supreme Court is set to rule this year on whether UK courts can set the terms of a global FRAND licence, in an appeal from Huawei as part of its dispute with Unwired Planet.
Huawei, which has been found to have infringed two Unwired patents, has said UK courts shouldn’t be able to impose the terms of a global licence, and wants the terms to cover the UK only.
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