Huawei sues Samsung for patent infringement of phones and networks

The Chinese manufacturer Huawei has sued market leader Samsung for infringement of patents, which relate, among other things, to telephone software and mobile networks. These include standard essential patents, which every telephone maker must have a license.

Huawei has filed suit in China and the United States, the company says. Huawei, which makes smartphones and is active in mobile network equipment, does not clarify exactly which Samsung products infringe which patents. The patents are related to ‘mobile network connections and software’.

Huawei is one of the companies that has many patents on 4g technology LTE, which is in almost all smartphones. The company claims to have more than 50,000 patents worldwide. Standard Essential Patents are patents whose technology phone makers must use to support a particular standard, such as LTE or Wi-Fi. The holders of those patents must grant licenses on reasonable terms. For example, they must impose roughly the same conditions on all companies and charge the same costs. Samsung has not yet responded to the competitor’s complaint.

It’s been years since some of the biggest companies in the smartphone market fought each other over patents. Samsung and Apple have been fighting a legal battle for years, but it has now almost come to an end. Samsung is the market leader in the telephone market, Huawei is the number three worldwide.