Troubled Huawei’s handset division reportedly is negotiating with two domestic retailers to licence its smartphone designs to bypass US sanctions, aiming to generate additional revenue from the unit cut off from global chip supplies.

Bloomberg reported state-owned China Postal and Telecommunications Appliances and TD Tech, which both currently sell Huawei handsets, plan to market devices featuring Huawei designs under their own brands. The deals are intended to give the local companies access to chips made using US technology.

This not the first time Huawei suggested licensing its technologies. In September 2019, founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei announced it would consider selling access to its 5G technologies to a company based outside Asia to ease concerns about spying.

The company’s revenue for the first nine months of 2021 fell by almost a third year-on-year, with handset sales plunging after divesting sub-brand Honor to avoid toughened trade sanctions from the US.

The company declined to comment on a query sent by Mobile World Live.

Last week, President Joe Biden signed a law that prevents Chinese vendors, including Huawei and ZTE, from receiving licences from regulators to sell equipment in the US. The Secure Equipment Act targets companies seen as national security threats.