The logo of Samsung Electronics is seen at its headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, July 4, 2016.
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Samsung filed its lawsuit with an intellectual property court in Beijing and is claiming a total of 161 million yuan ($24 million) so far in damages from Huawei’s use of patents, the court wrote on its official Weibo microblog account. The world’s largest maker of phones and memory chips said last week investing in BYD would bolster Samsung’s semiconductor business for cars. She did not elaborate on the types of patents involved or on what other Chinese courts were hearing similar allegations.
“In the absence of a negotiated settlement, litigation is often an efficient way to resolve” intellectual property rights disputes, it said.
It comes two months after Huawei, a telecommunications-equipment maker that has quickly gained ground competing with Samsung on smartphones, first filed a lawsuit against Samsung, alleging the South Korean electronics maker infringed on a number of patents covering mobile devices and cellular-communications technology.
CIMB analyst Lee Do-hoon said neither company was likely to be motivated by monetary compensation from the legal battle. The Korean company is accusing Huawei of employing patents in its Mate 8, Honor and other smartphones and tablets.
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Huawei is now the third-largest smartphone manufacturer in the world, after Samsung and Apple, with a market share of about eight percent, according to the market tracker IDC Research. In May this year, Huawei accused its bigger rival Samsung of illegally using its 11 patents in relation to icon and widget display on 16 products including Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S7.
