Chinese manufacturing giant, Huawei, is in the news again and this time, a US company says it can still do business with Huawei. According to InterDigital, although the United States tried to ban the sale of chips and software to Huawei, it could license its 5G network technology to Huawei. In addition, some US patent attorneys said that Qualcomm may also be able to do so.
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InterDigital and Qualcomm are the two patent holders of wireless network technology in the United States. For a long time, the former has generated revenue by developing wireless technology and then licensing patents. According to InterDigital, the technology that the company licenses is not confidential and is open to the outside world. If a company wants to use it, just pay the fee.
InterDigital spokesperson, Patrick Van de Wille, said that Huawei’s inclusion in the “entity list” does not prevent the company from signing a patent license agreement with Huawei because “our patents involve open technology and therefore exceed US export control laws.” Qualcomm, on the other hand, did not respond to requests for comment. However, trade lawyers believe that the situation faced by Qualcomm is similar to InterDigital.
It is worth mentioning that Qualcomm, InterDigital, and Huawei have patent disputes. In January of this year, Huawei filed a lawsuit against InterDigital in China, alleging that the company did not authorize its intellectual property rights under fair terms. The patent dispute between Qualcomm and Huawei has not yet been resolved.
