May 25, 2012 - Huawei Technologies filed a complaint with the European Commission (EC) against InterDigital, a U.S.-based non-practicing entity that Huawei says is trying to force the Chinese communications equipment company into a "discriminatory, unfair and exploitative" license under eight 3G standard essential patents.
Huawei claims that the license offered by InterDigital breaches the European Telecommunications Standards Institute's policy requiring fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) licensing practices by technology patent holders. FRAND calls for licenses to allow companies to develop open standards and discourages the sort of abuse of "patent power" Huawei accuses InterDigital of practicing.
InterDigital says it received nearly $3 billion in royalties from 2G and 3G licenses through December 31, and sees "great potential" for the company's licensing program for LTE.