Huawei pleads not guilty to IP theft charges in Seattle court

IP theft charges come in addition to accusations of wire fraud and obstruction of justice

Huawei has pleaded not guilty to ten charges of fraud and intellectual property theft. The charges, levied at Huawei Device Co and Huawei Device USA, come in addition to accusations of wire fraud and obstructing justice.

If found guilty, the company faces a fine of up to $5m or three-times the value of the secrets it stole - whichever is biggest.

The trial will be heard in March 2020, where the court will be told about the alleged theft of details of a robot used by T-Mobile to test its devices. Prosecutors claim that a visiting member of Huawei staff actually detached the robot's arm, measured it, took photos and sent them to the company.

Huawei acknowledged this but claims the worker was not under any remit from the company and was subsequently fired. Whether Huawei immediately disposed of the gathered intelligence remains to be heard.

The US claims that Huawei targeted US companies such as Apple, as well as technology start-ups, in a bid to steal technology.

This case coincides with the arrest of the company's chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou in Canada in January. She is expected to be extradited to the US to face charges that she helped Huawei to break US sanctions against Iran by channelling funds through a foreign subsidiary. No dates have been set for her removal to the US, or the case itself.

Huawei has found itself on the receiving end of an FBI sting already this year, when a hidden microphone at a CES event recorded staff admitting to exporting a piece of ‘diamond glass' technology to China, violating the terms of an agreement that it should stay on US soil.

The owner of the tech in question, a new type of toughened glass, believes the sample was sent to China for reverse engineering. The FBI, which examined the broken glass that Huawei sent back late, bore evidence that a military laser had been used to test its properties, implying that Huawei had passed the sample to Chinese intelligence.

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