Samsung to counter-sue Huawei

Samsung Electronics on Wednesday hinted that it might file a counter-suit against Huawei, which has sued the Korean company in the U.S. and China for infringing its technology patents.

“We will take countermeasures, including a lawsuit (against Huawei),” Ahn Seong-ho, head of Samsung’s intellectual property division, told reporters after a weekly meeting of Samsung CEOs in Seoul. 

His comment came after the Chinese equipment giant filed patent suits in California in the U.S. and Shenzhen in China, claiming Samsung had illegally utilized its 4G network technology without permission.

In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in a federal court in San Francisco, Huawei claimed that Samsung infringed as many as 11 patents related to communications networks and software to run Long Term Evolution networks on 4G mobile devices.

The company claimed cash compensation on billions of dollars that Samsung has earned, but a more detailed amount and other conditions for settlement were not disclosed. The company also did not seek an order to block the sales of Samsung products in the U.S.

“We have a good history of licensing and cross-licensing of our peers,” William Plummer, a Huawei spokesman, told Bloomberg. “We hope that Samsung will do the right thing.”

A Samsung spokesperson declined to further elaborate on the issue, saying the company was reviewing the case.

The same case was also filed in Shenzhen People’s Court in China where Huawei is based.

The latest patent dispute comes as the two companies compete fierce in the global smartphone market. Samsung sold 81.18 million smartphones around the world in the first quarter, taking up 23.2 percent of the total, followed by Apple with 14.8 percent and Huawei with 8.3 percent.

When it comes to network equipment, Huawei is the No. 1 player despite its absence in the U.S. market due to security issues, while Samsung is fast catching up to its Chinese rival.

Samsung has also been involved in a court battle with Apple for years. In 2014, they decided to withdraw all the lawsuits around the world, except the ones in the U.S.

By Kim Young-won and news reports (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)