Chinese kit maker accuses local rival of illegally using its intellectual property on wireless data cards, LTE equipment; ZTE rejects claims.
Huawei on Thursday said it has slapped its local rival ZTE with a number of lawsuits, accusing it of infringing several of its patents and illegally using its trademarks, but ZTE hit straight back, expressing its surprise at the move.
The company said its lawsuits were filed in Germany, France and Hungary following unsuccessful attempts to enter cross-licensing negotiations, and after its fellow Chinese equipment maker failed to take heed of cease and desist letters.
"Huawei was compelled to initiate this action in order to protect our innovations and registered intellectual property in Europe," said Song Liuping, chief legal officer at Huawei, in a statement.
"Our objective is to stop the illegal use of Huawei's intellectual property and resolve this dispute through negotiation so that our technology is used in a lawful manner," he said.
ZTE is accused of infringing patents related to Huawei's data card and LTE technologies, and of illegally using Huawei's trademarks on some of its own data card products.
"Intellectual property is among Huawei's most valuable assets," Song continued. "That is why we feel a responsibility to our customers and to our shareholders to do everything possible to protect these assets in any legal jurisdiction worldwide."
To drive home its point, Huawei said it spent $2.5 billion on research and development in 2010, and a further $222 million on patent licensing fees to obtain permission to use technologies developed by other companies.
ZTE said in a statement it was "astonished" by the action taken by Huawei.
"ZTE respects and adheres to international intellectual property laws and regulations without reservation, and absolutely rejects that there has been any patent and trademark infringement," the company said.
ZTE also indulged in some sabre-rattling of its own, warning of "vigorous legal action" in order to protect its interests, and those of its customers.
This is the second time in a month that ZTE has been hit with patent lawsuits.
Earlier in April it was sued in the U.K., Italy and Germany by Ericsson, which claimed its lawsuits were a last resort after several futile years of trying to negotiate a licensing deal for patents covering areas including WCDMA technology. ZTE has since fired back with its own patent-infringement lawsuit against Ericsson.
Meanwhile Huawei recently settled a lawsuit filed against Motorola Solutions in order to prevent its intellectual property being transferred by the latter's sale of its networks business to Nokia Siemens Networks since fired back with its own patent-infringement lawsuit against Ericsson.
Meanwhile Huawei recently settled a lawsuit filed against Motorola Solutions in order to prevent its intellectual property being transferred by the latter's sale of its networks business to Nokia Siemens Networks.
