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Chinese vendor claims operator has refused to license its intellectual property.
Huawei this week filed a patent suit against T-Mobile US, claiming that the operator has refused to license its intellectual property.
The complaint, lodged on Tuesday with the District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, relates to certain standard essential patents covering 4G technology.
Huawei insists it is prepared to license them under fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms, but said "T-Mobile is an unwilling patent licensee" that has turned down its good faith offers.
Huawei said it first contacted T-Mobile about its licensing programme in June 2014; however, due to disagreements about mutual non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), they did not establish a dialogue until February this year.
Despite ongoing NDA negotiations, Huawei claims that it pushed ahead with making a FRAND offer to T-Mobile, an offer that was "flatly rejected" by the latter, which then continued using what Huawei claims were delaying tactics.
"Because T-Mobile continues to wilfully practice Huawei’s 4G wireless network essential patents without a licence, Huawei was forced to bring four patent infringement actions…against T-Mobile in this court," said Huawei, in its legal filing.
Huawei is seeking a declaratory judgement, which will establish that Huawei has complied with its FRAND commitment and that T-Mobile is indeed an unwilling licensee.
If successful, it will pave the way for a new patent-licensing deal between the two companies.
