Huawei sues InterDigital over FRAND violations
Chinese conglomerate Huawei has sued wireless technology provider InterDigital, based in the US, for breaching licensing obligations surrounding patents essential to 3G, 4G and 5G telecoms standards.
The complaint was filed on January 2 in the Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court, according to an InterDigital filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission dated yesterday, January 7.
Huawei claimed that InterDigital has failed to license the patents on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms. It also wants the court to determine the terms for licensing InterDigital’s Chinese patents that are essential to 3G, 4G and 5G standards on Huawei’s wireless terminal unit products made and/or sold in China from 2019 to 2023.
Bill Merritt, CEO of InterDigital, told WIPR that the number of Chinese patents relevant to these wireless communications standards is not available, but that the company’s overall portfolio in these areas totals 36,000 patents and applications.
Merritt claimed his company has the most competitive rates in the industry in relation to wireless standards contributions, “and when we cannot reach agreement with a customer, we always offer to have an arbitration panel determine the rates”.
As a result, he added, InterDigital’s rates and licensing practices have never been successfully challenged.
“Nevertheless, we’ll continue our discussions with the goal of a comprehensive agreement,” he said.
A licensing agreement between InterDigital and Huawei concluded only last month, on December 31, having been signed in 2016. The worldwide, non-exclusive deal covered Huawei’s sales of 3G and 4G terminal unit products and required cash payments and a transfer of patents to InterDigital.
Merritt said the patents covered by that agreement are mostly similar to those now in dispute, with the exception of the ones relating to 5G.
He added that it is unclear what will be the next steps in the case.
In an interview with WIPR last year, Merritt championed the use of arbitration over litigation to settle FRAND disputes, saying that judges don’t always appreciate longstanding licensing practices and therefore approach the analysis in the wrong way.
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