IDC ordered to compensate Huawei over monopoly

GUANGZHOU - A court in South China's Guangdong province has ordered US firm InterDigital Communications (IDC) to pay Chinese technology giant Huawei 20 million yuan ($3.26 million) in compensation for monopolistic practices.

In the final verdict on Monday, the Guangdong Provincial Higher People's Court upheld the previous verdict issued by the municipal intermediate people's court of Shenzhen, where Huawei is headquartered.

The patent prices offered by IDC to Huawei have been much higher, sometimes even hundreds of times higher, than to other companies, according to the court.

Asking for a higher price from Huawei is neither fair nor reasonable as Huawei's cellphone sales volume is far less than that of Apple and Samsung, according to the court.

The U.S. International Trade Commission initiated a Section 337 investigation on Huawei's 3G and 4G wireless devices on January 31 for patent infringement. IDC, a wireless technology patent giant, was active in pushing forward the investigation, according to the court.

According to the court, it was legitimate for the case to be heard in China as Huawei's manufacturing is based in the country and IDC's monopoly in U.S. markets and patent authorization could directly affect Huawei's production in China as well as its exports.

Huawei sued IDC over its abuse of market monopoly on December 6, 2011 and asked for a compensation of 20 million yuan. Both parties appealed to the court after the first verdict.