Nokia fights back to Huawei's infringement claim

Feynman Z. LIANG | July 20, 2016

Last week, Nokia announced that it has filed 4 lawsuits against Huawei for infringement of 3 patents of Nokia before Eastern District Court of Texas. Back in July 5, Huawei started a patent lawsuit against T-Mobile, who is one of major clients of Nokia.

Nokia claimed that after the expiration of the previous license agreement with Huawei in 2013, Huawei refused to renew the agreement but continued to use the patented technology in its model Nexus6p、Honor 5x、P8lite、GX8、AscendMate2、SnapTo、Mediapad T18.0 Pro.

In the issue of jurisdiction, Nokia claimed that Eastern District Court of Texas should have jurisdiction over this case because Huawei previously brought up cases against his client T-mobile before the same court. Nokia further argued that, besides license agreement negotiation, Nokia has been providing alternative of mediation, hoping that appropriate licensing rate could be reached by both parties to avoid patent litigation between Huawei and his client T-mobile.

It seems that Nokia has become very serious toward Huawei who is the late-comer(compared to Nokia) yet quickly growing competitor in the international market. Statistic shows Huawei owns 9,800 patents in the United States, among which 7,400 are in the field of communication while 2,200 are in the field of digital processing technology. Statistic issued by WIPO on PCT filing number of 2016 also shows that Huawei ranks No.1 with 3,898 PCT applications when Qualcomm at the second place filed 2,442 applications. Huawei spent USD 40 billion in R&D in the past 10 years and it gradually grows into an IP powerhouse in the United States when it started to enforce its patents against its competitors or potential licensees. In the mature IP environment such as the United States, patent is frequently used as an effective tool to protect, to exclude competitors or to profit. As more and more Chinese companies grow rapidly in the sophisticated technology field, they will invest more in R&D and IP protection. Before long, we will see more Chinese faces as plaintiffs in US in the future.