It’s China meets East Texas, as Huawei files patent lawsuit against T-Mobile

Huawei's showcase at a mall in Nanjing Xinjiekou, China. (credit: VCG / Getty Images)

The Eastern District of Texas was once just a place where American companies went to get fast justice when they wanted to sue a foreign competitor over patents. But US intellectual property laws cuts both ways. An expanding set of lawsuits between Huawei and its competitors is the clearest sign yet that Chinese companies are quickly learning to use IP law to gain an edge over their competitors.

Shenzhen-based Huawei sued (PDF) T-Mobile last week, asking for a judicial ruling that it's following the right rules for using "standard essential" patents, which require patents to be licensed on a "fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory" (or "FRAND") basis. The new lawsuit is a kind of follow-on lawsuit for four patent infringement lawsuits that Huawei filed against T-Mobile in January, all based in the Eastern District of Texas. (Here's one complaint (PDF) from the four January cases.)

Huawei and T-Mobile have been in legal conflict since 2014, when T-Mobile alleged that Huawei stole trade secrets related to cellphone-testing robots. That case is set to go to trial in October. Huawei denies any wrongdoing.

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