Huawei has entered a licensing agreement with patent pool licensing company MPEG LA, resolving a dispute that had threatened the Chinese company’s ability to sell its phones in Germany. In an announcement yesterday, February 19, MPEG LA said Huawei has become a licensee of its Advanced Video Coding patent portfolio licence. The agreement has resolved all legal disputes related to patent enforcement brought against Huawei by patent holders in the AVC licence. MPEG LA’s AVC patent portfolio covers a digital video coding standard which is used in computer software, mobile phones, media players and other devices. In November 2018, the District Court in Düsseldorf, Germany ruled in favour of two patent holders in the AVC licence. It found Huawei had infringed their patents by using their technologies in its mobile phones and tablets. The court granted an injunction against Huawei that ordered all infringing mobile phones in Huawei’s possession, and those in the hands of third parties to be recalled and destroyed. MPEG LA had previously offered Huawei the chance to licence the technology. The ruling meant Huawei had to decide between licensing the technology it had infringed or pull products which used the infringing technology from the market in Germany. The court found that the licence offered to Huawei by the patent holders is “fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory”. Larry Horn, the CEO of MPEG LA, welcomed the court's decision at the time and said MPEG LA would offer a licence to Huawei.

Source: WIPR