Huawei has filed a $1bn Patent Infringement lawsuit against Verizon, accusing Verizon of intellectual property theft, and is asking the US carrier to pay royalties for using about 230 of its patents.
Huawei filed patent infringement lawsuits against Verizon in the US district courts for the eastern and western districts of Texas.
“Verizon’s products and services have benefited from patented technology that Huawei developed over many years of research and development,” Song Liuping, Huawei’s chief legal officer, said.
“Unfortunately, when no agreement can be reached, we have no choice but to seek a legal remedy,”
Huawei says it attempted to negotiate with Verizon on six separate occasions in the past year before launching the suit.
Alan Fan, the company’s head of legal strategy, said:
“We have had no choice but to be more assertive, including bringing actions to court. We have more faith in the US’s well-regarded and independent judicial branch in our search for justice.”
Huawei alleges that Verizon was using technology protected by 12 of its US patents. The company has asked for royalties as well as damages as compensation.
The patents in question relate to “optical transmission, digital communications and related services”. None are to do with 5G technology.
Verizon responded to the lawsuit saying:
“Huawei’s lawsuit filed overnight, in the very early morning, is nothing more than a PR stunt. This lawsuit is a sneak attack on our company and the entire tech ecosystem.”
