Huawei Asked Verizon to Pay Patent Fees

It is reported on June 13 that Huawei asked Verizon, the biggest U.S. carrier, to pay more than USD 1 billion for over 230 patents. Huawei finally decides to take the initiative and it’s no longer foreign companies’ “patent” to monetize patents.

Patent income is legitimate given that companies may have invested a lot in research and development. Huawei has made impressive strides to patent monetization .

The patents involved cover more than 20 of Verizon’s network equipment vendors,   including major U.S. tech firms; the vendors would indemnify Verizon for the patent fees. Those patents range from core network equipment, wired infrastructure to internet-of-things technology.

As early as this February, Huawei sent letters to Verizon and its vendors asking for patent fees. Last week, representatives from Huawei and Verizon met in New York to discuss patent issues, yet Verizon refused to reveal details because of legal regulations.

The representative from Verizon said, this issue has been reported to the U.S. government. It’s not merely bothers Verizon but more importantly, any Huawei-related issue would affect the entire industry and arouse worldwide attention.

Verizon is the largest telecommunications company and wireless telecommunications provider in the US. In 2018, Verizon agreed to sell Huawei phones though the cooperation was disrupted out of pressure imposed by the US government.

Kang Zhao, chief editor of Caijing said, Verizon is one of the Top 3 carrier and Huawei is one of the world’s major equipment providers which has many patents on 4G, 5G and internet-of-things. It is inevitable that Verizon will be in need of Huawei’s patents.

Collecting patent fees is legitimate, even telecom giants like Ericsson and Nokia and chip manufacturer Qualcomm cannot survive without patent fees.

July 14, 2019

Source: Beijing Business Today

Photo from: Beijing Business Today