As per the most recent data available, Korean electronics giant Samsung and Chinese company Huawei are the two biggest Android device vendors in the world. That in itself comes with its fair share of responsibility and scrutiny from both the public and the press. What we often forget is that it also means that the two would do anything to one-up each other in their quest for world dominance.
That is what is currently happening as Huawei and Samsung are now embroiled in a messy patent fight spread over courts in various jurisdictions across several continents.
Back in May, Huawei filed multiple lawsuits in the United States and China seeking compensation from Samsung for infringing on its patents in 4G cellular communications technology, operating systems and the user interface software deployed in Samsung’s smartphones.
In response, Samsung has countersued Huawei and its partner, Beijing Hengtongda Department Store, at the Beijing Intellectual Property Court in China for also infringing on six of its patents. Details on the types of patents Samsung is suing Huawei for infringing on have not been made public so far.
Samsung is demanding $24 million from Huawei as compensation for the alleged infringement in addition to the company stopping production of its Mate 8 and Honor smartphones, the latter of which are produced by Huawei’s subsidiary, Honor.
This is not the first time that Samsung is involved in a high-stakes patent fight in the courts. The company is known for its long-drawn legal fight with the other member of the top three biggest smartphone maker list, Apple.
According to a Reuters report, Samsung had over 110,000 registered patents by the end of last year while Huawei had over 50,000 patents to its name at the same time.
Another Chinese Android device maker, Meizu, is currently embroiled in a legal fight of its own with chip-maker Qualcomm over similar patent infringement claims.
We’ll be following this closely to see how it ends.
