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China's Huawei Sues Samsung Claiming Mobile Patent Infringement (reuters.com)

Posted by msmash on from the role-reversal dept.

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.

10 of 49 comments (clear)

  1. Growth Slows by Luthair · · Score: 2

    So sue.

  2. That's rich by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:That's rich by jandersen · · Score: 2

      Yes, yes, the Chinese are thieving bastards who can't develop anything original - and on the same note, the Jews are greedy usurers without conscience, and the Americans are gun-slinging hicks with size 20 mouth in a size 10 head. Seriously, reality has never agreed with this sort of simplistic jingoism, so let's move on a bit, OK? I mean, I have been hearing this same nonsense about Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Thailand, India, ... - and it has never been as simple as that. Once it was true about America too, and even you guys moved on and became world leaders for a while. It seems that emerging nations learn, in the beginning, from the more developed nations and then they move up to join the club of more mature contributors. China are already ahead of the West in some areas - which is why there is a tendency to see the newest gadgets in East Asia before they come to America and Europe. We can still teach them things, but we can certainly learn one or two things from them as well.

  3. The TFA is scant on details by H3lldr0p · · Score: 2

    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.

  4. That's rich by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

  5. Oh, the irony is killing me. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Huawei (or any other Chinese manufacturer) suing anyone for patent infringement is just priceless...

  6. Probably rounded corners on 4g phones by Lendrick · · Score: 5, Funny

    If Samsung would just put spikes on the corners of their phones like I suggested a long time ago, none of this would happen.

  7. Why not? by hackingbear · · Score: 2

    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.

  8. Standard Samsung MO by Dixie_Flatline · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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...

  9. The problem is how they got caught. by mmell · · Score: 3, Insightful
    I'll bet somebody was trying to back-engineer Samsung's hardware when they realized "hey, I don't even need to reverse engineer this part 'cuz I wrote that last year.

    "Wait a minute . . . "