Particle.news
Download on the App Store
8 ARTICLES
·
2w ago

HP and Huawei Sign Multi‑Year Wi‑Fi Patent Cross‑Licence

The agreement gives both companies reciprocal rights to standard-essential Wi‑Fi patents including Wi‑Fi 7 and illustrates how patent licensing can proceed despite U.S. export limits.

People walk past the Huawei booth, where the Atlas 950 SuperPoD system is displayed, during the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai, China, July 17, 2026. REUTERS/Go Nakamura/File Photo
Image
Image
The agreement grants HP the right to use certain Huawei Wi-fi patents on its PCs for a fee. Photo: Shutterstock Images

Overview

  • The two firms signed the multi-year cross-licence on Aug. 26, 2026, giving HP rights to Huawei Wi‑Fi patents and Huawei reciprocal access to HP patents while disclosing no financial terms.
  • HP said the deal is a routine licence for standard-essential patents and does not represent a wider commercial partnership with Huawei.
  • The agreement explicitly covers Huawei patents for Wi‑Fi 7 and follows earlier steps in the dispute: Huawei sued HP in Europe in August 2025 and HP joined the Sisvel Wi‑Fi 6 patent pool in November 2025 to gain access to about 2,000 Wi‑Fi 6 patents.
  • Standard-essential patents are needed to make devices work with industry Wi‑Fi standards and are normally licensed on FRAND (fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory) terms, a process that patent pools and bilateral licences aim to simplify and prevent multi-front litigation.
  • Huawei has been actively monetizing its Wi‑Fi portfolio by setting public per-device rates (about $0.50 for consumer devices) and saying its Wi‑Fi inventions were used in over 1.6 billion consumer devices by the end of 2025, which reinforces its leverage in standard-setting and affects costs for device makers and ultimately consumers.