The settlement avoids at least one public fight over the electronics maker’s role in the telecommunications supply chain. The Huawei stand at a mobile conference in June.
Photo: josep lago/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Huawei Technologies Co. agreed to settle two U.S. patent-infringement lawsuits it brought against Verizon Communications Inc., VZ 0.14% avoiding at least one public fight over the Chinese electronics maker’s role in the telecommunications supply chain.
Verizon said the agreement, announced Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, covered allegations Huawei filed in two federal courts in 2020. The Shenzhen-based electronics giant had demanded that the American cellphone carrier pay it fees for the use of dozens of patents. Verizon has previously called the allegations meritless.
“Verizon is happy with the settlement reached with Huawei involving patent lawsuits,” the U.S. company said Monday. “While terms of the settlement are not being disclosed, our team did an outstanding job bringing this protracted matter to a close.”
A Huawei spokesman confirmed the settlement ended litigation between the two companies. News of the settlement was earlier reported by Reuters.
Huawei is the world’s largest maker of equipment that forms the backbone of the modern internet as well as a large manufacturer of mobile phones and other consumer electronics. The company has become a flashpoint in a geopolitical fight between the U.S. and China over leadership in technologies considered important to both superpowers’ economic clout.
Huawei still faces a court battle over the extradition from Canada of finance chief Meng Wanzhou to the U.S., which has accused the executive of criminal charges related to the Chinese company’s alleged violation of sanctions against Iran. The electronics supplier is also contending with U.S. restrictions that have squeezed the supply of chips used to make its equipment.
Write to Drew FitzGerald at [email protected]
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Appeared in the July 13, 2021, print edition as ‘Huawei Settles Two Patent Lawsuits Against Verizon.’
