Huawei wins antitrust lawsuit against IDC

Huawei Technologies Co, a leading Chinese telecom equipment supplier, came out victorious in its antitrust lawsuit against US company InterDigital Inc (IDC) for exploiting its monopoly power and won a ruling of 20 million yuan ($3.28 million) in compensation, the Nandu Daily reported Tuesday.

The Higher People's Court of Guangdong Province made the final judgment on the lawsuit that Huawei filed in 2011 against IDC, believing that IDC abused its monopoly market position to charge an unfairly high price on Huawei for patent usage, the report said.

IDC is a US wireless company which has engaged in setting standards for wireless telecommunication such as 2G and 3G and has a series of patents in the field. Huawei had to use IDC patents to produce its 3G cellphones, said media reports.

The judgment also said that IDC had initiated an investigation from the US International Trade Commission (ITC) in January based on Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 on Huawei in a bid to force Huawei to not charge for its patents that IDC wanted to use.

Section 337 investigations focus on allegations of patent or registered trademark infringement, and also involve misappropriating of aspects such as trade secrets, false advertising, and violation of the antitrust laws.

ITC posted the preliminary result of the investigation on September 6, saying that Huawei was not involved in patent infringement, media reports said on September 18.