Huawei announced today in Shenzhen that it has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Verizon, a US telecommunications operator, in the Eastern and Western District Courts of Texas, USA.
“Verizon’s products and services have benefited from patented technology that Huawei developed over many years of research and development,” said Dr. Song Liuping, Huawei’s Chief Legal Officer.
It is reported that Huawei invests 10 to 15% of its annual revenue for R & D. The cumulative R & D expenses in the past ten years have exceeded 70 billion U.S. dollars, with over 80,000 patents worldwide, and more than 10,000 in the United States alone.
Liuping revealed that before the lawsuit was filed, Huawei and Verizon had negotiated and communicated for a long time. After listing the patent list and factual evidence, the two parties were still unable to reach an agreement on the licensing issue. In Huawei’s view, the lawsuit is not an end, but a means to instruct Verizon to respect the technology and either pay for it or not use them.
Huawei pointed out that patent licensing is a common practice in the industry. Huawei has signed more than 100 licensing agreements with ICT companies and has received more than $ 1.4 billion in license fee revenue since 2015.
In addition, Huawei has paid over US $ 6 billion for patented technology, 80% of which went to US companies.
According to foreign media reports, Huawei has approached Verizon since February last year, and the two parties held at least 6 meetings. At that time, Huawei claimed that Verizon had infringed more than 200 patents. As for the 12 indictments, it is said that the facts and evidence are the clearest.
Data show that Verizon is the largest communications operator in the United States, with revenue of 29.8 billion US dollars in 2018.
