Chinese Telecom Giant Huawei Sues T-Mobile For Patent Infringment (geekwire.com) 46
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.
Re: Isn't that Ironic (Score:1)
Like freee-loading Chinese reverse engineering company suing the company they hacked. Isssssnt it ironic?
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
This is commonly referred to as a test case..
Patents that are recognized in China only.. if they sue T-mobile in the US courts for a patent the US doesn't recognize then it opens the books to tons of other copy-cat law suits over similar things.. (hey.. China has a patent on sneezing.. you can't get it in the US, but we can sue to in the US for using our patent).
Re: Isn't that Ironic (Score:5, Informative)
What in the world are you talking about? From the front page of the complaint: "This is a patent case regarding Huawei’s obligation to offer a license to certain U.S. patents . . ."
Re: (Score:1)
That's all well and good but it seems the main reason T-mobile wouldn't play ball is because they refused to sign a Non-disclosure clause. Something that really shouldn't be necessary. This isn't dealing with secret tech, this is referring to publicly available patents. So the only real reason to use a NDA is to prevent T-mobile from talking about what they're being roped into.
First Apple, then Disney, now T-Moblie (Score:3, Insightful)
This technique needs a name, possibly the "Chinese Shakedown". Hey world, if you want to play in our market, you own us money and part ownership, that is how we roll! You can't beat us, we know your fighting style!
Out of curiosity, is it this hard for foreign companies to compete in the USA?
What's good for the goose (Score:1)
Lots of local companies have been using shitty patents to stifle competition or shake down others for some time. Often they have more success if the company they file against is foreign-owned. Perhaps that appeals to some perverse sense of nationalism in certain districts.
What's good for the goose...
There's a history between the two (Score:5, Interesting)
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 [nytimes.com].
So there's no love lost between the two companies.
Re:What's good for the goose (Score:4, Informative)
Re: What's good for the goose (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Corporations are extra-national. They will claim whatever nationality is currently making them the biggest buck, then change tomorrow because the profit is blowing the other direction.
Re: (Score:2)
There is no company called just "T-Mobile". The post mentions "Bellevue-based T-Mobile". T-Mobile US, Inc. is based in Bellevue, WA. T-Mobile International AG is based in Bonn, Germany.
Therefore the post is referring to T-Mobile US, Inc.
Re: (Score:2)
Well, three lefts make a right...
Re:First Apple, then Disney, now T-Moblie (Score:5, Informative)
This technique needs a name, possibly the "Chinese Shakedown".
More specifically this is Huawei, a company that is synonymous with spying and corporate espionage (http://www.networkworld.com/article/2223272/cisco-subnet/60-minutes-torpedoes-huawei-in-less-than-15-minutes.html), and that's just the 60 minutes speech. In two of my previous employers people have been arrested and thrown in jail for stealing data and sending it to the homeland, these are facts proven in court.
They shouldn't be allowed in our country at all, or yours, if you are smart. Patent infringement is a joke, they haven't had an original idea yet.
Tangentally related... (Score:1)
I have now had *TWO* cellphones, one Huawei and one ZTE randomly show up with wifi on one morning. While there is the slim possibility I somehow triggered the power button, lockscreen, swipedown menu, and then wifi button, I am curious if anyone else has seen this behavior and whether it is possible it was stingray activated, manufacturer activated, or mms/virus activated (Phones only use f-droid, one is pre-google play (although it was on the cellular network at the time the wifi enabled), and the other is
Re: (Score:1)
I'm sorry, are the patents they filed legal or not? That's really all this case comes down to. The rest of your rhetoric is just windowdressing your non-existent racial pretense.
Outside of your xenophobia and probably rightful comments on corruption (A good deal of the world is a lot more corrupt than the US.. China is certainly no exception) what have you said?
So do you hate China because their spies get caught (VS. US 'contractors' in other nations)? Or are you telling everyone to buy US products because
Re: (Score:2)
A better name would be "The Microsoft Shakedown", as they originated (AFAIK) the practice of suing for patent infringement without revealing what the infringement was...or even what patent.
Filed in the right place (Score:1)
Location of court checks out. Should be a slam dunk for Huawei even if the claim is bollocks. Have they retained the judge's son to make sure?
Re: (Score:2)
s/retained/detained/
One way or another.
Hwawei was built on theft (Score:1)
Ask any former Nortel employee. They stole EVERYTHING from Nortel and then turned around and competed against them globally with their own copied hardware.
No monetary damages (Score:2)
Huawei is not looking for monetary damages
It sounds quite odd nowadays...
Yes (Score:2)