Huawei and Sharp have announced a “long term” global patent cross licensing agreement allowing them to use each others cellular standard essential patents (SEPs) covering 4G and 5G technology.

In the press release announcing the deal, Alan Fan, head of Huawei’s intellectual property department, said the licence represents “mutual recognition of intellectual property of two standard contributors, which promotes standardisation collaboration.”

He added: “We’ve enjoyed working together with Japanese and global peers in developing standards, and will continue to do so.”

Executive managing officer, chief technical officer and head of R&D at Osaka-headquartered Sharp, Mototaka Taneya, said: “We are pleased to have reached this global patent cross-licensing agreement with Huawei under fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory conditions.”

Commenting on the agreement, patent attorney at Mewburn Ellis, Tom Furnival, said Huawei’s settlement of the licence with Sharp will “likely come as some relief, given their involvement in one of the first SEP Unified Patent Court disputes against Netgear filed earlier in the year”.

The Chinese technology giant has filed lawsuits against California-based Wi-Fi equipment vendor Netgear, not only in Europe but in China too, alleging infringement of some its patents covering Wi-Fi technology.

In recent times, Huawei has made moves to leverage its massive patent portfolio like Nokia and Ericsson, who are known for their profitable patent licensing strategies. Huawei has filed patent infringement lawsuits against the likes of Stellantis, Xiaomi, Amazon and Verizon.