Huawei sues T-Mobile over 4G patent infringement
Huawei Technologies on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against T-Mobile for mobile patent infringement, as the Puget Sound Business Journal first reported.
The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court in Eastern Texas, alleges that the wireless carrier rejected a deal to license 14 Huawei patents but continued to use its 4G technologies. The two firms began talks over a licensing agreement for the 4G patents in 2014. The Chinese firm isn't seeking financial damages, but it's asking the court to declare that Huawei met its obligations to license patents at a fair and reasonable rate and to declare T-Mobile an unwilling licensee.
T-Mobile filed its own suit against Huawei in 2014 charging that the Chinese firm stole T-Mobile's cell phone testing robot technology. The case is pending in federal court in Seattle and goes to trial on October 31.
Hauwei, one of the largest smartphone makers, has built up its patent portfolio, topping the list of global patent applicants last year. About a month ago, Hauwei filed a patent infringement suit against Samsung.
While smartphone growth has stalled globally, IDC said in late April that Huawei has managed to push its way up in the market and ranked as the third largest vendor in the first quarter of 2016, behind Samsung and Apple.