From the “I didn’t see this coming” department comes this Forbes story that describes how out of favor Chinese telco gear maker Huawei is using the US patent system to fight back against US attempts to freeze it out of the country:
Putting Huawei on the Entity List may have stopped it from licensing critical US technology, but Huawei is seeking to earn revenue in other ways. Huawei filed patent infringement claims against Verizon and also for products Verizon acquires from other US companies such as Cisco and Hewlett-Packard; and Huawei is demanding royalty payments for hundreds of patents. Huawei’s patents may not even be practiced in the firms’ products, but Huawei is allowed to use the legal process to compel court discovery on Verizon’s and its suppliers’ confidential information. Huawei may illegally use this data to enrich Huawei’s knowledge of competitors’ products and technology.
Well, that’s pretty crafty and it is certain that the White House had not considered this possibility. You have to wonder what’s next from Huawei seeing as the metaphorical noose is tightening around it at the moment.