Huawei in competition complaint

24 May 2012
Last updated at 21:41 ET












Huawei has been looking to tap into the fast-growing tablet PC and smartphone market

China's Huawei has filed a competition complaint against US firm InterDigital with European Union regulators.

Huawei, the world's second largest telecoms equipment maker, accuses InterDigital of "abusing" its position and demanding "exploitative" fees to licence its mobile patents.

It added that such moves were against the EU rules which require holders to licence their patents fairly.

Huawei has been looking to tap into the smartphone and tablet PC market.

InterDigital, which is based in Philadelphia, owns more than 19,500 mobile communications patents and patent applications.

Huawei said in a statement: "InterDigital is seeking to leverage its declared 3G standard essential patents to force Huawei to conclude a discriminatory, unfair and exploitative license.

"InterDigital's demand manifestly breaches the policies of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute calling for fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory licensing practices by technology patent holders."