Huawei Technologies Co Ltd has told Verizon Communications Inc that the US carrier should pay licensing fees for more than 230 of the Chinese telecoms equipment maker’s patents and in aggregate is seeking more than $1 billion, reported Reuters.
Verizon should pay to “solve the patent licensing issue,” a Huawei intellectual property licensing executive wrote in February, reported the Wall Street Journal. The patents cover network equipment for more than 20 of the company’s vendors including major US tech firms but those vendors would indemnify Verizon, Reuters sources said.
Companies involved, including Verizon have notified the US government as the dispute comes amid a growing trade feud between China and the United States.
The White House Office of Management and Budget has told the US Congress it will now meet a two-year deadline to ban federal contracts with companies that do business with Chinese telecoms giant Huawei, as part of a defense law passed last year, according to a letter seen by Reuters.
“Congress has made it clear in recent days the importance of implementing the law within the two years provided, and we will,” Russ Vought, the acting director of OMB, said in the letter addressed to Senator James Inhofe, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
