Why it matters to you
When companies battle it out in courts, they tend to have less time and resources to devote to new products.
Huawei and Samsung recently battled it out in Chinese courts when the former accused Samsung of using its intellectual property. Well folks, it looks like the court agrees — Samsung has been ordered to cough up $11.6 million in the patent case.
This is actually the first of a slew of lawsuits against Samsung in China –it was first filed in May 2016. This particular case seems to relate to the use of unlicensed 4G technologies, which have been used in a massive 30 million Samsung phones, at least according to XDA-Developers.
More: Huawei must honor patent judgment or face U.K. ban of its phones
It’s currently unclear if Samsung will pay up or if it will file a countersuit, as it has done in other suits — Samsung hasn’t announced its next steps yet, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see the case continue. For now, the ruling is a pretty big victory for Huawei.
Samsung has countersued Huawei in a series of other cases, spanning a total of six patents, arguing that it had attempted to resolve the dispute “amicably.” Originally, Huawei demanded Samsung pay a whopping $12.7 billion in compensation.
Patent disputes are pretty common in the smartphone world, and Huawei, Samsung, Apple, and other companies have been in and out of courts regularly over the past few years. In China, the disputes are even trickier.
“In general, it is tougher for foreign brands to operate in China given the many rules and regulations that they have to abide to that China sets for them.” said IDC analyst Xiaohan Tay in a CNET report.
Huawei isn’t only getting good news. The company was recently warned by the U.K. High Court to pay a global licensing fee for patents filed by U.S. company Unwired Planet, or face a sales ban in the U.K.