March 6, 2024

The Chinese firm said it had ended its lawsuits against Amazon in Germany over patented technology related to wifi and video playback

China’s Huawei Technologies has announced it will sign a multi-year patent licensing deal with Amazon in a move to end its lawsuits against the US tech giant.

The US-sanctioned Chinese tech giant did not disclose most terms of the deal.

But Alan Fan, head of Huawei’s intellectual property rights department, said the Chinese firm had ended its lawsuits against Amazon in Germany over patented technology related to wifi and video playback.

The United States has barred Chinese telecom companies from its market, citing concerns about data, and designated Huawei and ZTE as threats.

The sanctions spurred US carriers to remove equipment from the sanctioned firms from their US networks.

Washington has, since 2019, also prevented US firms from supplying Huawei with chips and other components. While the bans crippled Huawei’s smartphone business, the Chinese firm chartered a return last year with the launch of its Mate 60 series.

Huawei’s reported breakthroughs in producing 7nm and 5nm chips have largely been seen as the firm defeating sanctions imposed by the US.

Its the patent licence deal with Amazon, despite those tensions, shows “American and Chinese companies and companies from other regions are cooperating without limitations in standards and patent licensing,” Fan said.

Huawei also announced it had signed a cross-licensing patent deal with domestic smartphone maker Vivo covering communication technologies including 5G. Huawei has similar patent agreements with Chinese smartphone manufacturers Xiaomi and Oppo.