US Continues to Rise Pressure on Huawei

US Continues to Rise Pressure on Huawei
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The US Department of Justice has escalated legal action against Huawei. DoJ filed charges accusing the company of racketeering and conspiring to steal trade secrets from six technology companies.

They claim that Huawei and its subsidiaries in the US and China used deceptive tactics to gain access to IP from US companies, which was then used in commercial products. It alleged the company accessed source code and user manuals for internet routers, antenna technology and robot testing technology.

Huawei believes that this is political persecution. "These charges are based largely on resolved civil disputes from the last 20 years that have been previously settled, litigated, and in some cases, rejected by federal judges and juries. In these disputes, no court has ever found that Huawei had engaged in malicious intellectual property theft, or required the company to pay damages for infringement on others' intellectual property. The Department of Justice is reintroducing previously resolved civil cases as criminal cases. This is selective, politically-motivated enforcement of the law, and contrary to common judicial conventions," Chinese company said in a statement.

Tech giant claims that it has less intelectual property disputes in the last ten years than Apple or Samsung. They said that the US government's sole purpose is to attack, discredit, and smear the reputation of the company. "No company can become a global leader by stealing from others. By the end of 2018, Huawei had been granted 87,805 patents, including 11,152 in the US. Since 2015, we have received over US$1.4 billion in licensing revenue. We have simultaneously paid more than US$6 billion in royalties for the legitimate use of other companies' patents. Nearly 80% of that amount was paid to US companies," Huawei said.