We don’t get to read about Chinese companies embroiling in patent battles every day, and that’s why the story involving Huawei and ZTE caught our attention.
First up, Huawei took legal action against ZTE in Germany, France and Hungary for patent and trademark infringement. According to Huawei, ZTE infringed a series of Huawei’s patents relating to datacard and LTE technologies, saying that ZTE illegally used a Huawei-registered trademark on some of its datacard products. Moreover, Huawei said ZTE hasn’t responded to cease and desist letters, as well as other invites to settle the dispute out of court.
ZTE reacted, saying they were “astonished” by the action and rejecting “that there has been any patent and trademark infringement.” It also added that while it is “always willing to negotiate on issues in good faith,” it will “definitely take vigorous legal action in situations like this to protect its interests and those of its customers worldwide.” And voila – a day later ZTE filed its own lawsuit in China against its archrival, saying Huawei infringed over ZTE’s LTE technology patents.
Meanwhile, Huawei is in the midst of a legal dispute with Motorola, while ZTE is currently battling Ericsson. Lawyers are the only one winning here, it seems…
[Via: MobileBusinessBriefing]