In May, Huawei sued the South Korean electronics giant in California in the United States and in Shenzhen in China, claiming Samsung violated its patents.
Huawei accused Samsung of using some of its cellular communications and software inventions without its permission.
In response, Samsung announced Friday it filed a countersuit against Huawei in a Beijing court, alleging Huawei of infringing six of its patents. The case, which demanded millions of dollars in compensation, was filed two weeks ago.
Samsung has sued China’s Huawei for allegedly infringing on six patentsJuly 22, 2016
“Despite our best efforts to resolve this matter amicably, it has regrettably become necessary to take legal action in order to defend our intellectual property,” Samsung said.
Samsung is the world’s top smartphone maker while Huawei is the third manufacturer after Apple.
But the South Korean firm’s market supremacy has been challenged by several companies, especially those from China, that churn out cheaper smartphones.
Samsung sues Huawei for patent infringements at a Beijing court, escalating legal conflicts between the tech giants pic.twitter.com/zXyzF8u39f
— CCTVNEWS (@cctvnews) July 23, 2016
According to a Beijing court, Huawei and a department store in the Chinese capital were named defendants in the case filed by Samsung, which demanded 161 million yuan or $24.14 million in damages.
The court said Samsung wants Huawei and the store to stop the production and sales of devices that Samsung claims violated its patents. These products include Huawei’s Honor and Mate 8 smartphones.
In a report from Reuters, Huawei said it would defend itself from the case although it has not received a formal complaint.
“In the absence of a negotiated settlement, litigation is often an efficient way to resolve” intellectual property rights disputes, said the Shenzhen-based telecom equipment maker.
Samsung was also involved in patent rows with Apple for years, but the two leading smartphone makers dropped all the lawsuits they have filed against each other in courts outside the United States in 2014.
Following Huawei’s filing of the case against Samsung in May, BBC reported that Huawei wanted to offer other firms a license under the agreement of non-excessive compensation, which is common in the tech industry.
This agreement allows products of companies to share data formats.
Rather than seeking compensation, Huawei’s intellectual property chief Ding Jianxing said the Chinese firm sought permission to use some technologies of the South Korean company.
“Thus far, we have signed cross-licensing agreements with dozens of our competitors,” Ding said.
“We hope Samsung will respect Huawei’s R&D investment and patents, stop infringing our patents and get the necessary license from Huawei, and work together with Huawei to jointly drive the industry forward.”