Huawei and Samsung settle 4G intellectual property dispute

Huawei had accused Samsung of using its 4G intellectual property without a licence

Huawei and Samsung have settled a two-year-old intellectual property dispute in the US, with Huawei pledging to file a motion to dismiss an appeal that had been due to be heard later this year.

That's according to Reuters, which reports that the two companies filed a joint motion this week with the US appeals court, requesting a pause to court proceedings over their patent dispute after reaching an out-of-court settlement. A trial for the case was set to start in September.

"The parties entered into a settlement agreement and, pursuant to that agreement, they anticipate that in the next several weeks they will complete the pending steps to finalize the settlement and ultimately that Huawei will file an unopposed motion to dismiss this pending appeal within the next 30 days," the joint motion states.

Huawei and Samsung have been fighting in courts since 2016 when the former alleged that Samsung had been infringing its patented cellular technologies in 27 of its Galaxy devices including the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, the Galaxy Note 5 and the Galaxy Tab S2.

The lawsuit, filed in the US and China, accused Samsung of "imprinting, selling and offering for sale a substantial volume of standard-compliant products that use Huawei's SEP technology without a licence".

Huawei at the time argued that Samsung had earned "billions of dollars" by selling products that infringe the Chinese firm's patented LTE technology, and has become a market leader in the smartphone and tablet markets as a result.

Samsung denied the allegations and accused Huawei of seeking "grossly" inflated licensing fees and counter-sued the company in the US.

Back in 2017, a court in China ruled that Samsung must pay Huawei £9.3m for the "unlicensed use of fourth-generation (4G) cellular communications technology, operating systems and user interface software in Samsung phones."

This was followed by a separate ruling in January 2018 by a Shenzhen court which issued an order blocking Samsung's Chinese affiliates from manufacturing and selling 4G LTE smartphones in China.