Samsung Ordered To Pay Huawei $11.6M For Patent Infringement

A Chinese court has ruled in favor of Huawei in the Chinese company’s patent infringement case against South Korea tech giant Samsung. The Galaxy S8 maker is now being asked to pay the Huawei P10 manufacturer 80 million yuan or $11.6 million.

Reuters reported Thursday that Huawei emerged victorious in its legal battle against Samsung over intellectual property. The verdict is reportedly the first out of the several lawsuits Huawei filed against the South Korean company. While a Huawei spokesperson welcomed the Chinese court’s decision, Samsung said that it is contemplating on how to respond to the court’s ruling.

The $11.6 million is for the infringement of Huawei’s several copyrights. The Chinese company has actually sued five companies all in all. Three out of the five are of Samsung’s and the remaining two are Chinese electronics companies. All are said to have violated Huawei by “making and selling more than 20 kinds of Samsung smartphone and tablet products” that infringed Huawei’s patents. The Galaxy S7 from last year is believed to be among the devices that violated Huawei’s copyrights.

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Android Authority stated that this is still a relatively small win for Huawei because the company is only getting $11 million from Samsung, which posted $21 billion in consolidated revenue for last year. The large figure was also mostly thanks to the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 Edge, so clearly Huawei is getting the short end of the stick.

Samsung is planning its next move carefully, since it is maintaining that it has been leading the innovation in the mobile technology industry for many years now. “Over many years, Samsung Electronics has pioneered the development of innovative mobile technologies through continuous investment in R&D to provide consumers with a wide selection of innovative products. We will thoroughly review the court's decision and determine appropriate responses," Apple’s biggest rival told ZDNet.

In May 2016, Huawei filed lawsuits against Samsung in courts in both U.S. and China. The suits mainly accuse Samsung of infringing Huawei’s 4G standard patents. Last July, the South Korea giant responded to the Chinese company’s allegations by countersuing the latter for infringing its copyrighted technologies with the release of the Mate 8 and Honor smartphones.