US proposal to block Huawei from pursuing damages in patent courts would hurt global tech, warns Huawei

Chinese tech giant Huawei warned Thursday a U.S. senator’s proposal to block company from pursuing dams in patent courts would be a “catastrophe for global invation.” proposal comes amid mounting U.S. action against Huawei, biggest maker of switching gear for phone carriers. company has been devastated by Trump ministration’s decision to impose restrictions on its access to American chips for smartphones and or components and techlogy.

Disrupting Huawei’s access to U.S. patent courts would threaten intellectual property system that supports techlogy development, said Song Liping, company’s chief legal officer. proposal by Sen. Marco Rubio, a Republican from Florida, followed reports Huawei Techlogies Ltd. is asking for $1 billion from American phone carrier Verizon for use of Chinese company’s patents.

“If such a legislative proposal were to be passed, it would be a catastrophe for global invation. It would have terrible consequences,” Song said at a news conference. He said it would “break foundation of IP protection.”

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American officials accuse Huawei of facilitating Chinese spying, a charge company denies, and see it as a growing competitive threat to U.S. techlogy industries. Huawei’s founder, Ren Zhengfei, said this month it has cut its project sales by $30 billion over next two years due to curbs on access to American chips and or components. He said smartphone sales outside China will fall 40%.

Huawei’s U.S. sales of network gear evaporated after a congressional panel labeled company a security threat in 2012 and told phone carriers to avoid it. But Chinese company has a patent portfolio it licenses to manufacturers and carriers. Song gave confirmation of how much Huawei wants from Verizon or basis of its claims.

“We aren’t taking an aggressive approach to intellectual property rights,” Song said. “We aim to protect our IP in order to safeguard our global business and we have intention of weaponizing IP. We are against charging exorbitant royalties, and we think that fees should be within reasonable realms.”

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Huawei, founded in 1986, has China’s biggest corporate research and development budget at $15 billion in 2018. company is a leer in developing next-generation telecoms techlogy. On Wednesday, a U.S. federal court jury in Texas ruled Huawei stole tre secrets from a Silicon Valley company but awarded dams, saying Chinese company didn’t benefit.

jury rejected Huawei’s claims that Cnex Labs Inc. co-founder Yiren Huang stole its techlogy while he worked at a Huawei subsidiary. Huawei’s he of intellectual property, Jason Ding, said company was studying verdict and deciding what to do next. Asked about a report by Bloomberg News that some Huawei researchers h published papers with Chinese military personnel over past dece, Song said company wasn’t aware of its employees publishing research as private individuals.

“We don’t customize products or do research for military,” said Song. “We are t aware of employees publishing papers. We don’t have projects of that kind.”

(Except heline, changes were me to original AP stories by Republic World staff)