Huawei warns against ‘politicisation’ of innovation, IP

Shenzhen, June 27 (IANS) After a trade ban by the US, Chinese telecom giant Huawei on Thursday warned against "politicising" of innovation and intellectual property (IP) while adding that IP is the cornerstone of innovation and its politicisation threatens progress across the world.

"If politicians use IP as a political tool, they will destroy confidence in the patent protection system. If some governments selectively strip companies of their IP, it will break the foundation of global innovation," Song Liuping, Huawei's Chief Legal Officer, said in a statement.

In a white paper titled "Respecting and Protecting Intellectual Property: The Foundation of Innovation", the tech major noted that as of 2018 end, Huawei has been granted 87,805 patents of which 11,152 are US patents.

Since 2015, Huawei has received over $1.4 billion in licensing revenue.

The firm has also paid more than $6 billion in royalties to legally implement the IP of other companies, with nearly 80 per cent of that paid to American companies, according to the document.

"Intellectual property is private property, protected by the law, and disputes should be resolved through legal proceedings," said Song.

"In the past 30 years, no court has ever concluded that Huawei was engaged in malicious IP theft, and Huawei has never been required by the court to pay damages for this."

Hit by the US trade ban, Huawei is looking at a massive $30 billion loss in revenue over the next two years, the Chinese smartphone giant's Founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei said last week, adding that the US President Donald Trump administration's attack on Huawei can't stop it from moving forward.

Huawei just outpaced Apple for the number two spot globally in the smartphone market, when the US trade ban hit the company hard as it lost access to swathes of its hardware and software supply chain.

Huawei, which is the world's largest maker of telecom equipment, has also been banned by the US from testing their 5G networks.

On May 15, Trump effectively banned Huawei with a national security order.

The US publicly asked its allies to steer clear of using Huawei products over concerns that the equipment could be used by the Chinese government to obtain private information.

Huawei has filed a motion in a US court challenging the constitutionality of the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, 2019.

The Chinese tech giant also asked for an end to US' state-sanctioned campaign against it, arguing that it would "not deliver cybersecurity". A hearing on the motion is scheduled for September 19.