Huawei turned up the heat on Verizon in an ongoing dispute over technology licensing, opening legal proceedings alleging the US operator infringed 12 of its patents related to network technology.

In a statement, Huawei said it filed lawsuits at two US district courts, seeking an unspecified amount of damages.

Huawei’s chief legal officer Song Liuping stated the US operator’s “products and services have benefited from patented technology that Huawei developed over many years of research and development”.

Reuters reported the alleged violation by Verizon was related to patents covering computer networking, video communication and security.

The vendor explained it was taking legal action after prolonged negotiations failed to deliver an agreement between the pair. In 2019, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Huawei had issued a $1 billion claim against Verizon in a dispute over network and IoT equipment.

Song explained Huawei invested heavily in R&D and shared innovations with the broader industry through licensing deals.

“This is the common practice in the industry. Huawei is simply asking that Verizon respect Huawei’s investment in research and development by either paying for the use of our patents, or refraining from using them in its products and services”, he argued.

The company stated it owned more than 80,000 patents worldwide, with 10,000 of the pile in the US. Since 2015, it received more than $1.4 billion in licence fees, and paid more than $6 billion to use other companies’ patented technology.