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 on 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. A licensing agreement between InterDigital and Huawei concluded only last month, on December 31, having been signed in 2016. 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.

Source: WIPR