Huawei has lost a new round in a trial in which it is accused of having stolen technologies related to the 3G and 4G functionality of the phones it sells all over the world, the Chinese company risking having the phones banned for sale in Great Britain. In 2014, a company called Unwired Planet sued Samsung, Google and Huawei accusing them of stealing its 3G and 4G connectivity technologies, the first two entering into agreements to escape the lawsuit.
Huawei was not so open to a possible agreement, and continued the process, saying that it should not pay compensation, and licenses, for global sales, but only for those in Great Britain. Of course, Huawei lost at the Court of Appeal in Great Britain against the American company, and now if the appeal is rejected by the Supreme Court of Justice in the country, it will have a choice between paying tens of millions of dollars in the form of a license, or banning the sale of phones in the region.
Huawei: What it STOLE to LAUNCH its Phones
Huawei has so far failed to convince the court not to force it to pay compensation and licenses except for Great Britain, but it has managed to convince it to impose fees of only 0.03 and 0.06 pence for each phone sold. The exact amount that Huawei would have to pay for the theft of these technologies is not yet known, but tens of millions of pounds would not be too much of a problem for the Chinese, but the precedent is the one that matters the most here.
"The legal defeat over Huawei's use of a smartphone technology enabling access to 3G and 4G networks means the company could face the threat of being barred from selling the devices in Britain. The Court of Appeal on Tuesday dismissed the Chinese firm's appeal, and stated that it should pay a global license fee for infringing Unwired Planet's patents to avoid a sales injunction in the UK."
Huawei risks having other lawsuits opened against it if it fails to win the one in Great Britain, and the amounts paid for other possible stolen technologies will be much higher. Huawei has stated that it will continue to sell its phones in the UK and I don't think that the court decision will force it to stop, but just like Apple, Samsung, Google, or Microsoft, it seems that it occasionally steals other people's technologies to- and create the products.
