AVM has settled the licensing dispute with Huawei – and is paying. This is reported by the IT news platform Deskmodder, among others. The German and Chinese power supply specialists reached an out-of-court agreement. Details about the agreement, in particular the amount of license fees that AVM now has to pay to Huawei for the use of its patented WLAN technologies, are unknown.
That’s what the dispute was about
Huawei accused AVM of illegally using two of its WLAN patents. AVM rejected the allegations. The licensing dispute ended up before the Munich I regional court, which ruled in favor of Huawei. You can read more about this in Huawei wins against AVM in Munich court: Is there a risk of a sales ban for Fritzbox? as well as in Huawei suing AVM, Amazon, Netgear and Stellantis – that’s what it’s all about.
Fritzbox 7590 AX in price comparison:
AVM then published a firmware update for the affected Fritzbox models, which changed the use of the controversial technology. But this did not appease Huawei and continued its lawsuit. After all, it’s a lot of money in the form of license costs that AVM would have to pay to Huawei.
Agreement reached: silence on the details
The next court date was scheduled for April 17, 2024. But this was canceled. AVM did not publish a press release about this and did not proactively inform the public. But AVM’s press office is said to have confirmed to Deskmodder and other media that the legal dispute is over; However, AVM did not provide any details because the two companies had agreed on confidentiality.
This can only mean that from now on AVM will pay license fees to Huawei for its patented WLAN technologies. AVM and Huawei are silent about the amount, but there has already been speculation about it: Huawei wants this much money for every AVM device with Wi-Fi 6 technology – this is how AVM reacts. Accordingly, Huawei demanded 0.50 US dollars, or around 0.46 euros, from AVM.
Huawei had previously persuaded Amazon, among others, to license its WLAN technologies. Netgear, another large manufacturer of network equipment, has not given in to date and is still arguing with Huawei over the use of its patented WLAN technologies.
The big advantage for AVM: The Berlin company can now continue to sell its extremely successful Fritzbox models without any legal concerns. In addition, the owners of Fritz boxes now also have legal security.
You can also read more information about the agreement between AVM and Huawei on the website IP Fray, which specializes in patent law.
