Telecom equipment major ZTE filed a lawsuit against Huawei Technologies. The ZTE’s lawsuit filed in China comes a day after Huawei filed a case against ZTE in Europe.
Industry is considering this as a retaliation move by ZTE. ZTE spokespersons were not available for comments.
The law suit filed by ZTE in China is accusing Huawei of infringing its own fourth generation LTE technologies. The company also asked Huawei to refrain from indulging in any further such violations, and to pay them a hefty fee, amount unknown, as compensations.
On Thursday, Huawei dragged ZTE to a European Court by accusing it of indulging in patent infringement of its mobile broadband data cards as well as of its high speed fourth generation Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology.
Huawei was compelled to initiate this action in order to protect our innovations and registered intellectual property in Europe. Our objective is to stop the illegal use of Huawei’s intellectual property and resolve this dispute through negotiation so that our technology is used in a lawful manner,” said Song Liuping, chief legal officer, Huawei.
These lawsuits were commenced after ZTE failed to respond to cease and desist letters requiring the company to stop carrying out the infringing acts that are the basis for these proceedings. Huawei had also actively invited ZTE on numerous occasions to enter into cross-patent licensing negotiations but was equally unsuccessful. As Huawei has neither received any substantive response nor a commitment from ZTE to stop its infringements, the company has had no alternative but to use legal means to protect its legal interests by requesting that the courts prohibit ZTE’s continued infringements of Huawei’s trade mark and patent rights.
Intellectual property is among Huawei’s most valuable assets. That is why we feel a responsibility to our customers and to our shareholders to do everything possible to protect these assets in any legal jurisdiction worldwide. Where violations are taking place, we will do whatever is required to ensure that the use of Huawei’s intellectual property by any company is based on internationally accepted protocols and practices,” Song added.
By TelecomLead.com Team
editor@telecomlead.com
