In a tit-for-tat move, Taiwanese chipmaker MediaTek and its subsidiaries HFI Innovation and MTK Wireless have filed a lawsuit against Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. before the High Court of Justice for England and Wales.
The lawsuit, which remains under seal, comes just days after MediaTek disclosed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange that it was the target of a patent infringement action by Huawei in China.
Details surrounding the specific technologies at stake in both lawsuits remain undisclosed. However, sources familiar with the matter confirmed to Intellectual Asset Management (IAM) that both cases involve patents related to cellular communication technologies.
The dispute reportedly stems from failed negotiations over a component-level licensing agreement, which collapsed after three years of talks, according to Chinese media reports.
Huawei is reportedly pursuing a licensing approach that deviates from the standard licensing approach for cellular Standard Essential Patents (SEPs).
Traditionally, SEP licensing focuses on end products like smartphones. However, Huawei appears to be pursuing a component-level licensing strategy, targeting chipsets directly.
The company’s rationale behind this shift remains unclear. But one anonymous lawyer told IAM that “given that both parties are 5G chip manufacturers there could be a business strategic reason behind this art of war”.
Meanwhile, a Chinese media outlet suggests that Huawei’s shift towards component-level licensing could be a strategy to shift royalty fee pressure from major phone manufacturers like itself and Samsung to chipmakers such as MediaTek and Qualcomm. This could potentially allow Huawei to offer more competitive device pricing.
An anonymous patent expert commented that the dispute might also be a “signal to Qualcomm that it is ready to collect royalties from it even if it may not do so immediately”. US sanctions currently restrict Qualcomm’s ability to sell advanced chips to Huawei, but the situation could change.
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