Huawei sues Transsion holdings over IP theft in China

Transsion Holdings – the Chinese handset maker that recently got listed on China’s Nasdaq-style stock market has been slammed with a Lawsuit. The Lawsuit preferred against it by Huawei is that of an alleged intellectual property infringement. Huawei is reportedly claiming RMB 20 million from Transsion Holdings and five of its subsidiaries for patent right infringement.

Details of the patent infringement aren’t yet in the open, but a local court in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen accepted the case against Transsion Holdings and five of its subsidiaries over alleged intellectual property infringement so we should be haring more about the case in the coming weeks.

No official response from Huawei yet. However, Zhu Zhaojiang, chairman of Transsion, in his initial response told Chinese media Yicai on Monday that he believes “the law will bring a fair response” (our translation).

Interestingly, the lawsuit from Huawei hasn’t in any way affected the company’s performance as it made its stock market debut earlier today. The company soared as 96% on its first day of trading on China’s Nasdaq-style stock market, briefly pushing its valuation to $7.7 billion. And while it couldn’t maintain the temple, it closed up 64%, valuing Transsion at 46.24 billion yuan ($6.48 billion).

Transsion holdings is a little known in its home market of China but have gained quite a huge following in most of Africa’s market. The company operates under three smartphone brands in Africa including; Tecno, Itel, and Infinix. These brands according to data from research firm IDC havea combined 48.7% share of the mobile phone market in Africa last year.