ZTE wins patent case against Huawei in Paris district court

CHINA: ZTE Corp. welcomes the ruling by the Paris District Court requiring Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. to pay damages to the company, and dismissing Huawei’s infringement claim against the company over a data card patent.

The decision by the Paris District Court on 28 March to reject all of Huawei’s claims over the EP724 data card patent followed similar rulings in China and Germany. The Paris court dismissed Huawei’s claim over the “rotator head” data card patent on grounds of lack of novelty, and ordered Huawei to pay EUR 100,000 in damages to ZTE and ZTE’s subsidiary in France.

ZTE has won numerous patent rulings against Huawei in different jurisdictions in the past two years, as the company resolutely defends more than 10 patent infringement claims initiated by Huawei in courts in Europe.

“We are very pleased with the ruling by the Paris court,” said Guo Xiaoming, chief legal officer at ZTE. “The decision was within ZTE’s expectations, as it aligned with other rulings in China and France.”

In June 2012, the Patent Re-examination Board of the State Intellectual Property Office in China ruled Huawei’s data card patent to be invalid. In October 2012, the German Federal Patent Court issued a preliminary verdict to invalidate Huawei’s data card patent, and rejected all six of Huawei’s modification proposals.

According to the ruling of the Paris court, Huawei’s data card patent lacked novelty in all three key technical features.

1. The components of the USB connector were previously specified in the US2004/0048494 A1 patent in the United States

2. The elastic effect of the shaft end of the USB connector and component was previously specified in a patent filed by a company in Hangzhou, China

3. The accommodating portion of the outward casing of the USB product was covered by the 200520016967.5 patent

“Authorities in China, Germany and France all affirm the lack of novelty in Huawei’s patent,” Guo said.