T-Mobile US accused Huawei of stealing information about its “Tappy” device testing robot
A jury has awarded T-Mobile US $4.8 million in a lawsuit against Huawei Devices that accused the Huawei subsidiary of stealing information about a device testing robot which T-Mobile US had developed in order to improve handset quality. The trade secrets conflict over the robot ultimately led to T-Mobile US dismantling its device supplier relationship with Huawei.
The suit was filed by T-Mobile US in 2014 in U.S. District Court in Washington state. T-Mobile US said it had developed a device testing robot that was “easily adaptable to test any handset at minimal cost and with little training or labor needed”. “Tappy”, as the robot was nicknamed, “[performed] touches on the phone the same way a human being would – only much more frequently in a shorter period of time – and [recorded] the results. Simple in concept, but difficult in execution, the robot has reduced the costs of testing and increased the quality of the diagnostic results. Since implementing testing using the robot, phone returns for T-Mobile have declined significantly and testing time has decreased dramatically,” T-Mobile US said in its original filing.
According to the complaint, T-Mobile US had put multiple non-disclosure agreements and security procedures in place so that information about the testing robot at the company’s labs in Bellevue, Wash., was protected. T-Mobile US said that it banned one Huawei employee from the lab after he took unauthorized pictures of the robot, and that a second Huawei employee took Tappy’s robotic finger in order to make measurements and pass details about it on to colleagues in China. T-Mobile US said that Huawei’s actions cost T-Mobile tens of millions of dollars because it scuttled the supplier agreement, and hat Huawei was going to reap hundreds of millions of dollars in benefit from having a testing robot comparable to Tappy.
Huawei, for its part, initially claimed that T-Mobile US did not cite specific information that was stolen and that the carrier did not keep Tappy entirely secret: plenty of information about the robot was publicly available on YouTube and in patent paperwork, Huawei claimed, and noted that “T-Mobile did not ‘invent’ its robot. Rather, it purchased a robot from Epson.”
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Ultimately, Huawei did admit that its employees had acted inappropriately and were fired — but said that their actions were the result of “zeal to better understand the customer’s quality testing requirements,” Huawei spokesman William Plummer told The Seattle Times in 2014.
The jury found that Huawei had violated its agreements with T-Mobile US and did misappropriate trade secrets, but did not find that the conduct was “willful and malicious” and awarded no damages related to that claim. The $4.8 million award was in regards to Huawei breaching agreements with T-Mobile US, including its handset and accessory supply agreement.
Plummer told RCR Wireless News in an email that “Huawei is analyzing the jury’s verdict and evaluating its legal options. Huawei continues to believe in the merits of its defense to the allegations made by T-Mobile. According to the jury’s verdict, T-Mobile was not awarded any damages relating to the trade secrets claim and there was no award of punitive damages. Huawei is a global leader in innovation, and respect for intellectual property is a cornerstone value in our business.”
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