Looks like Samsung’s patent battles are far from over.
Huawei on Tuesday filed lawsuits against the South Korean tech giant in the U.S. District Court of Northern California and Shenzhen’s Intermediate People’s Court in China for infringement of patents related to cellular communications technology and software.
At issue in the suits are 11 patents, including Huawei’s technologies for improving the downlink receiving rate of mobile devices; improving the synchronization process for mobile devices on an LTE network through the use of random access preambles; providing a way for a mobile device to efficiently negotiate nonaccess stratum (NAS) security with an LTE network when it moves in idle state from a 2G or 3G network to the LTE network; and providing acknowledgement information in an LTE-Advanced system using carrier aggregation in a way that is backwards compatible with an LTE system. The lawsuit also claims Samsung violated three different patents pertaining to cell reselection when a mobile device moves from one area to another.
Huawei has accused Samsung of using the patented technology in nearly all of its major mobile devices, including the recently released Galaxy S7 and S7 edge, the Note 5, and Tab S2. Samsung’s Galaxy SII, SIII, S4, S5, S5 mini, S6, S6 edge, S6 edge+, Core Prime, Grand Prime, Note, Note II, Note 3, Note 4, Note Edge, Tab 2, Tab 3, Tab 4, Tab 7, Tab 8, Tab A, Tab E, and Tab S are all also named in the lawsuit.
Huawei said it has previously notified Samsung of the violations, but claimed the company has continued “willful” infringement of its patents.
According to Huawei’s complaint, Samsung and its entities have “earned billions of dollars by selling UMTS and LTE-compliant products that use Huawei’s technology.”
Ding Jianxing, president of Huawei’s Intellectual Property Rights Department, said the company is committed to sharing its patents on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory licensing terms, but believes it is entitled to receive compensation for the unlicensed use of its technology.
“While respecting others’ patents, we will also protect our own,” Ding said. “We hope Samsung will respect Huawei’s R&D investment and patents, stop infringing our patents and get the necessary license from Huawei, and work together with Huawei to jointly drive the industry forward.”
Samsung did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.
Huawei said it is seeking a trial by jury and is hoping to receive both “adequate” damages and ongoing royalties from infringing devices.
