Chinese telecoms firm and American PC manufacturer reach cross-licensing agreement covering next-generation Wi-Fi 7 technology following previous legal disputes.
Chinese telecoms giant Huawei Technologies has announced a multi-year cross-licensing agreement with American PC manufacturer HP Inc. The deal covers patents fundamental to Wi-Fi technology, including the latest Wi-Fi-7 standard.
Under the terms of the agreement, HP gains access to Huawei’s intellectual property while Huawei receives access to HP’s patents. Neither company disclosed the financial terms, nor did Huawei detail the precise scope of the patents it will receive from HP.
HP clarified that the transaction represents a routine licensing deal for industry-wide technology rather than a broader commercial venture.
Standard-essential patents cover inventions necessary to ensure hardware remains compatible with global industry standards. Cross-licensing agreements of this nature are commonplace among manufacturers of personal computers, printers, mobile phones, and connected devices.
The deal underscores Huawei’s continued influence as a major patent holder in global wireless communications, despite ongoing US trade restrictions that have compelled American carriers to remove Huawei equipment from national networks.
Over recent years, Huawei has aggressively expanded its patent licensing portfolio, securing settlements with several global firms, including Amazon. The company maintains that it holds one of the world’s largest shares of standard-essential patents for Wi-Fi-6, setting a royalty fee of 50 cents per consumer device. By the end of 2025, over 1.6 billion consumer electronics items—excluding mobile handsets—utilised Huawei’s Wi-Fi technology.
The new agreement follows a patent lawsuit filed by Huawei against HP at Europe’s Unified Patent Court in August 2025, which alleged unauthorised use of a Wi-Fi-6 patent.
HP subsequently joined the Sisvel Wi-Fi 6 patent pool in November 2025, resolving legal disputes with both Huawei and Philips. While the Sisvel pool offers pooled access to roughly 2,000 Wi-Fi 6 patents under a unified agreement, Huawei confirmed that this direct arrangement with HP covers an extended range of Wi-Fi intellectual property, including Wi-Fi-7.
Washington placed Huawei on a trade blacklist in 2019, requiring US suppliers to gain government approval before transferring certain American technologies. Although these restrictions severely restrict Huawei’s access to advanced semiconductors and proprietary software, they do not prohibit standard patent-licensing agreements.
According to market research firm Gartner, California-based HP remains the world’s second-largest PC manufacturer with a 21.3 per cent market share, positioned just behind Lenovo.
