Netgear sues Huawei in US antitrust case over patent licensing
31/01/2024 16:01
By Blake Brittain
Jan 31 (Reuters) - Computer networking company Netgear
NTGR.O has sued Huawei HWT.UL in California federal court,
claiming the Chinese tech giant broke U.S. antitrust law by
refusing to license its patents on reasonable terms.
The complaint, filed late on Tuesday, also accused Huawei of
fraud, racketeering and other offenses for allegedly withholding
patent licenses for technology that Netgear's routers require in
order to comply with international Wi-Fi networking standards.
San Jose, California-based Netgear said Huawei misuses
patent-infringement lawsuits to drive up its licensing rates,
forcing other companies to "engage in costly litigation and face
exclusion from the market or pay Huawei's exorbitant demands."
The complaint follows infringement lawsuits filed by Huawei
against Netgear in Germany and China.
Representatives for Huawei did not immediately respond to a
request for comment on Wednesday. A Netgear attorney declined to
comment on the lawsuit.
Standard-essential patents cover inventions that are
necessary to comply with international technical standards like
Bluetooth and 5G. Standards organizations require patent owners
to license the patents on fair and reasonable terms.
Huawei first accused Netgear of infringing its patents in a
2020 letter, according to the lawsuit. Netgear told the court
that Huawei filed infringement lawsuits against the company and
demanded "significant" licensing fees before providing important
background information or identifying specific relevant patents.
Huawei's "'take it or leave it' approach was intended to
extract supracompetitive rates from Netgear under the mounting
threat of serial lawsuits," the complaint said.
Netgear said Huawei has used the same strategy against other
companies including Verizon VZ.N , L3Harris LHX.N and
T-Mobile TMUS.O .
The lawsuit accused Huawei of monopolizing
standard-essential technology and engaging in racketeering by
using a "worldwide scheme" to "dominate global markets by
unlawfully taxing successful standards" at anti-competitive
rates.
Huawei reported last year that it earned $560 million from
patent royalties in 2022.
(Reporting by Blake Brittain in Washington
Editing by David Bario and Bill Berkrot)
((blake.brittain@tr.com; +1 (202) 938-5713;))