ZTE has said it is “astonished” at legal action taken against it by Huawei.
Earlier today Huawei filed lawsuits in Germany, France, and Hungary against ZTE for alleged patent and trade mark infringement. The lawsuits were filed on the basis that ZTE is infringing a series of Huawei’s patents relating to data card and LTE (Long Term Evolution) technologies and illegally used a Huawei-registered trademark on some of its data card products.
Â
Huawei said that ZTE had failed to respond to cease and desist letters, and had ingnored invitations to attend cross-party licesning negotiations.
Huawei’s Chief Legal Officer, Dr. Song Liuping said, “Huawei was compelled to initiate this action in order to protect our innovations and registered intellectual property in Europe. Our objective is to stop the illegal use of Huawei’s intellectual property and resolve this dispute through negotiation so that our technology is used in a lawful manner.”
Huawei has great respect for the rights of intellectual property holders and is equally committed to the protection of its own innovations and intellectual property. The company has signed a series of cross-license agreements with major telecoms vendors and other intellectual property rights holders. In 2010, Huawei paid US$222 million in patent licensing fees to obtain the legal right to use patents and technologies of other leading companies in the industry. Huawei also invests a considerable portion of its annual revenues in research and development. Its R&D expenditure in 2010 alone was RMB 16.556 billion (USD 2.5 billion).
ZTE denied the allegations, saying that it “absolutely rejects” the allegations.
Â
ZTE statement:
ZTE Corporation is astonished that Huawei Technologies has taken these legal actions. As a company listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange, ZTE respects and adheres to international intellectual property laws and regulations without reservation, and absolutely rejects that there has been any patent and trademark infringement. ZTE is always willing to negotiate on issues in good faith, but will definitely take vigorous legal action in situations like this to protect its interests and those of its customers worldwide.