HUAWEI must pay up to avoid sales ban in the UK

For a few years, Huawei has been involved in a court battle against Unwired Planet, a company from the US that owns a lot of networking patents obtained from Ericsson. It now looks like the Chinese manufacturer has lost and will have to pay up in order to avoid a sales ban in the UK. The High Court has ruled that HUAWEI has to pay a royalty to the company for each smartphone it sells around the world, not just in the UK.

The ruling shouldn’t have an impact on HUAWEI’s sales, as the company is reportedly willing to pay the royalties if it will have to. However, the third biggest smartphone manufacturer in the world will likely appeal, so things aren’t finalized yet. It might challenge the decision by arguing that an English court shouldn’t have the power to demand that the company pays royalties for international sales, which does make sense.

You’re probably wondering how much money will HUAWEI have to dish out, right? The company will have to pay between 0.032 and 0.064 percent of a smartphone’s selling price. Although it doesn’t look like a lot at first glance, it does add up considering that HUAWEI sells well over 100 million smartphones every year.

HUAWEI has issued a statement by saying its business operations in the UK and other markets likely won’t be affected by the court’s decision and that it is currently evaluating its possible next steps.