[ Courtesy of Samsung Electronics]
South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics vowed Wednesday to go into a copyright war against Huawei after the Chinese company sued the world's largest mobile maker of infringing on its smartphone patents.
Samsung's quick response came after Huawei filed lawsuits in the United States and China, claiming its fourth-generation (4G) cellular communications technology and software had been used in Samsung's phones without permission.
"We hope Samsung will respect Huawei's R&D investment and patents, stop infringing our patents and get the necessary licence from Huawei, and work together with Huawei to jointly drive the industry forward," Ding Jianxing, president of Huawei's Intellectual Property Rights Department, said in a statement.
Ahn Seung-ho, head of Samsung's intellectual property center, hit back, saying Samsung would launch a "counter-suit" against the Chinese company. "We may have to file a counter-suit because we cannot stay down, doing nothing."
Huawei, based in Shenzhen, is the world's largest telecommunications equipment manufacturer in the world, having overtaken Ericsson in 2012.
There has been a flurry of patent lawsuits in the smartphone industry, which saw a high-profile patent war between Samsung and its US rival Apple. Apple sued Samsung in 2011, accusing the South Korean company of using unlicensed technology, leading to a number of suits against each other in several countries.
Previously, Chinese firms have adopted a defensive strategy as they could face a great amount of fine due to patent violations. Last year Xiaomi was restricted from selling phones in India for infringing on Ericsson's patents but later signed a new deal with Qualcomm, enabling it to produce and sell smartphones with Qualcomm chipsets installed.
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
