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China's Huawei Sues Samsung Claiming Mobile Patent Infringement (reuters.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Huawei said on Wednesday it has filed lawsuits against Samsung claiming infringement of smartphone patents, in the first such case by the Chinese firm against the world's biggest mobile maker. Huawei has filed lawsuits in the United States and China seeking compensation for what it said was unlicensed use of fourth-generation (4G) cellular communications technology, operating systems and user interface software in Samsung phones. The lawsuit marks a reversal of roles in China where firms have often been on the receiving end of patent infringement disputes. In smartphones, makers have grown rapidly in recent years but different intellectual property laws outside of China have slowed overseas expansion. "We hope Samsung will ... stop infringing our patents and get the necessary license from Huawei, and work together with Huawei to jointly drive the industry forward," Ding Jianxing, president of Huawei's Intellectual Property Rights Department, said.
So sue.
They built their entire business on patent infringement. They still have nortel code in some of their comms gear, with comments from the developers in english.
It says the lawsuits were filed in the US and China, but it doesn't list the patents nor where in the US the suit was filed. Was it east Texas or somewhere else?
Aside from that, what's the point to these suits. It feels like they're coming out of the blue. Nothing on any of the sites I read was saying anything about these two. Was there some negotiations that went sour that Huawei wants to revive? Did Samsung piss up some high level party in China to start this? Because this seems more political than business related.
This is coming from a company and a country that haven't respected intellectual property rights of others. Chinese factories are notorious for knocking off goods they're contracted to produce. Chinese companies have a history of not respecting intellectual property. Huawei holds over 50,000 patents and this particular one seems to relate to the LTE standard, though the article is vague. I don't think patents should be enforceable in industry standards. There's also a good chance that many of those 50,000+ patents are trivial.
Huawei (or any other Chinese manufacturer) suing anyone for patent infringement is just priceless...
If Samsung would just put spikes on the corners of their phones like I suggested a long time ago, none of this would happen.
Because this seems more political than business related.
These patent infringement lawsuits, real inventions or fluffs, have been filed by huge amount by US companies or trolls, against many companies including Samsung. And Samsung have filed similar lawsuits against others. So why is a Chinese company copying the same practice only for "political" and not for money? Don't you know all companies and people want money, just like it is in the US? Have you been travel to China to take a look? China is not North Korea.
...let em know you'll pay em as soon as they crack down on all the stolen IP that they let their people get away with
Anyone involved in patents for large tech companies know that they're mostly acquired for defensive rather than offensive reasons. The purpose of holding a large patent portfolio is so that when someone knocks on your door and says you're infringing on their patent(s) you can take out your own patent book and show them how many patents they're infringing on - the result is usually a cross-licensing deal with no money exchanging hands. I'm guessing Huawei doesn't have one of those large patent books, so they're about to find out what happens when you bring a knife to a gunfight.
I swear, if patent laws and lawyers existed in days of old, we'd never have gotten out of the stone age because ABC Corp. would have held the patent on the wheel for ransom and infringement suits would have brought kept us walking.
Samsung is (or should be) well known for purposely infringing patents with the knowledge that they have the money to fight in court until the situation is no longer relevant. They don't just do it against American companies and in the mobile business, they've been doing it for years in Korea as well.
Samsung is hugely corrupt and rarely follows the rules. They get sued and counter-sue, tie up cases in courts for years, and then when the other company is tired of fighting, they either walk away scot free, or pay a pittance in relation to the profit they made by infringing. Huawei has no way to win this fight, but they're obligated to try for a while, at least.
I would try to stay away from Samsung products on principle, but I can't even buy Apple products without putting money into Samsung's pocket.
Vanity Fair ran a good article a few years ago that goes over it a bit.
http://www.vanityfair.com/news...
"Wait a minute . . . "
This has nothing to do with IP and everything to do with realpolitik. This is not Huawei suing Samsung. This is China bullying South Korea.
"Q. Where does Captain Picard like to eat?"
"A. Pizza Hutt!"
Hey, my little sister laughed at that one.
You forgot to mention that said lawsuit also contains redacted statements regarding a second violation.