Huawei Patent Case Shows Chinese Courts’ Rising Appeal for IP Disputes

Huawei Patent Case Shows Chinese Courts’ Rising Appeal for IP Disputes
A receptionist at the office of Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei in Wuhan City, China on Oct. 8, 2012. STR/AFP/Getty Images
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A smartphone patent fight between Chinese telecom firm Huawei and South Korean firm Samsung Electronics could reach a global resolution through a ruling by a Chinese court, a development that reflects the trend of corporations turning to China’s opaque legal system as a quick way of winning intellectual property disputes.

The size of the U.S. market and the strength of the country’s independent judiciary have historically given its courts the final say in most big cross-border patent disputes.

But this case is being closely watched because it has set up a clash between China and the United States’ judicial systems, with a U.S. judge instructing Huawei not to enforce a ruling the company won against Samsung in China, said Erick Robinson, a Beijing lawyer who previously was the Asia patent director of U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm.

“This has never happened before, at least not on this scale,” Robinson said in a recent interview.

Huawei filed lawsuits in both the United States and China in 2016, alleging Samsung used its cellular communications technology without authorization and has unreasonably delayed entering into a licensing agreement. Samsung has denied the allegations and accused Huawei of seeking “grossly” inflated licensing fees.