Interdigital, Huawei Agree on Patents

Interdigital has inked a new patent license agreement with Huawei Investment and Holding Co. that dismisses current patent infringement actions.

The multi-year, global, non-exclusive, royalty bearing patent license agreement, which also includes InterDigital’s patent holding subsidiaries, covers certain of Huawei’s products and certain of the company’s essential patents. It provides a framework for InterDigital and Huawei to dismiss all pending litigation between the companies.

“This agreement, reached amid challenging circumstances given the current economic downturn, highlights the strength of our business and the value of InterDigital’s contributions to multiple generations of wireless and video standards,” says William J. Merritt, president and chief executive officer at InterDigital.

“The agreement also underscores the fairness and flexibility of our licensing approach, including our rate and portfolio transparency, which set an industry standard,” he adds.

The agreement comes after Interdigital filed a patent infringement action against in the U.K. late last year.

The patent infringement actions sought “a determination of fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms for a license to InterDigital’s portfolio of 3G, 4G and 5G standards-essential patents (SEPs),” said a previous press release.

InterDigital, whose revenues come from developing wireless technologies and then licensing out the patents, reached this agreement with Huawei despite the latter being added to the U.S. Entity List.  The main reason was that export control laws do not cover patents as these are considered public records and not confidential technology.

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