WASHINGTON: The jury selection process for a patent infringement lawsuit launched by Huawei Technologies Co Ltd of China against Verizon Communications is slated to begin on Wednesday. Huawei sued Verizon in two federal district courts in Texas in February 2020, alleging that the company used a dozen Huawei patents without authorization in areas such as computer networking, download security, and video communications, and seeking an undisclosed amount of compensation and royalties.
Last year, Verizon termed the lawsuits “nothing more than a publicity hoax” and “a sneak attack on our company and the whole tech ecosystem,” and filed counterclaims against Huawei, alleging that the Chinese firm had infringed on Verizon patents.
“All we ask is that Verizon respect Huawei’s investment in research and development by either paying for the use of our patents or refraining from utilizing them,” Huawei said in 2020. On Tuesday, Huawei declined to comment. For some years, Huawei has been a flashpoint in the US-China relationship. The US placed the corporation on an economic blacklist in 2019 due to national security concerns, according to the US. Jury selection in Huawei’s claim filed in the Eastern District of Texas, which contains a small number of patents linked to optical transport networks, is planned to begin on Wednesday, while the other Texas litigation, which covers wireless patents, is set to go to trial in October. Depending on the progress of an unrelated case, jury selection could be delayed by a day or two.
According to Reuters, Huawei warned Verizon in June 2019 that it owed more than $1 billion in licensing costs for the usage of more than 230 Huawei patents.
(David Shepardson contributed reporting, and Rosalba O’Brien edited the piece.)/n
