Chinese Telecom Giant Huawei Sues T-Mobile For Patent Infringment (geekwire.com)

Nat Levy, reporting for GeekWire: Huawei alleges that Bellevue-based T-Mobile would not make a deal to license several 4G patents from the Chinese telecom company, and is still using those technologies, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday. The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court in Eastern Texas, alleges that Huawei offered to give T-Mobile license for several 4G patents under fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms (FRAND). T-Mobile allegedly didn't take the offer and continues to use the patented technologies. According to the lawsuit, the conflict goes back to 2014, when Huawei wanted to begin a licensing discussion, but T-Mobile allegedly would not sign a non-disclosure agreement and negotiations stalled. Earlier this year, Huawei filed several patent infringement complaints, according to the Puget Sound Business Journal, which first reported on today's suit. Huawei is not looking for monetary damages, but instead wants a declaratory judgment that would help facilitate a licensing agreement.

Comments

There's a history between the two

[maggard]

T-Mobile is unusual in the US that they've never used Huawei in their backend.

They also no longer sell Huawei devices to their customers.

The latter is likely tied to their accusations of industrial espionage and theft by Huawei employees: Possibly paywallled NYT article.

So there's no love lost between the two companies.