HP and Huawei have entered into a multi-year global patent cross-licensing agreement covering Wi-Fi technologies, giving HP access to certain Huawei patents while providing Huawei with reciprocal patent rights from HP.
Global technology companies HP Inc. and Huawei Technologies have signed a multi-year global patent cross-licensing agreement, establishing reciprocal intellectual property rights covering technologies used in Wi-Fi-enabled devices.
Under the agreement, HP will receive licences to certain Wi-Fi patents held by Huawei, while Huawei will obtain reciprocal patent rights from HP. The financial terms of the agreement have not been disclosed, and the companies have not provided details on the specific HP patents included in the arrangement.
The agreement covers patents associated with wireless connectivity technologies, including the latest Wi-Fi 7 standard, according to reports on the deal.
Rather than involving the supply of Huawei hardware or the integration of Huawei components into HP products, the arrangement centres specifically on intellectual property licensing.
HP clarified that Huawei is not a supplier to the company and that HP is not supplying Huawei. It also stressed that the agreement does not constitute a strategic partnership, commercial alliance or supply agreement.
The distinction is significant because Wi-Fi relies on a large ecosystem of standard-essential patents, or SEPs. These patents protect technologies considered necessary for products to comply with established technical standards.
Manufacturers of laptops, printers, smartphones, routers and other connected devices routinely rely on licences to such patents to ensure their products can operate using internationally adopted connectivity standards.
For HP, whose portfolio includes PCs, printers and other connected devices, access to Wi-Fi-related intellectual property helps support the continued development and sale of products compatible with evolving wireless standards.
Huawei, meanwhile, has built an extensive intellectual property portfolio across information and communications technology and has contributed to successive generations of Wi-Fi development.
Alan Fan, Huawei’s Chief Intellectual Property Officer, said the agreement reflected the company’s continued investment in innovation across information and communications technology.
“Through patent licensing, Huawei shares its innovation with the industry, particularly in the area of standardized technologies,” Fan said.
From Wi-Fi 6 to Wi-Fi 7
The agreement comes as the technology industry continues its transition towards newer generations of wireless connectivity.
Wi-Fi 6 was designed to improve wireless performance in environments where large numbers of devices are connected simultaneously, supporting applications ranging from high-definition video and gaming to smart-home and Internet of Things devices.
Wi-Fi 7 takes those capabilities further, offering higher throughput, lower latency and improved reliability. These improvements are expected to support increasingly demanding applications including 8K video, cloud computing, augmented and virtual reality, online collaboration and other data-intensive services.
As Wi-Fi standards become more sophisticated, the underlying intellectual property required to implement them is becoming increasingly important to device manufacturers.
Patent cross-licensing agreements can allow technology companies to gain access to essential innovations while giving patent owners rights to intellectual property held by the other party.
In this case, the reciprocal structure means the agreement extends beyond HP simply licensing Huawei’s patents. Huawei will also receive rights to certain HP patents, although the companies have not disclosed the scope of those rights.
Resolving Intellectual Property Issues
The latest agreement follows earlier patent-related proceedings involving the two companies.
Huawei initiated legal action against HP in 2025 relating to the use of Wi-Fi 6 technology. The dispute was subsequently addressed after HP became a licensee of the Sisvel Wi-Fi 6 patent pool, which provides access to a collection of patents considered essential to implementing Wi-Fi 6 technology.
The new direct agreement expands the intellectual property relationship between the two companies through a broader global cross-licensing arrangement.
For the wider technology industry, the deal highlights the growing commercial importance of patent portfolios as connectivity standards evolve.
Companies developing computers and other connected devices increasingly operate within technology ecosystems where innovations can be distributed across patents held by numerous organisations. Cross-licensing and patent pools provide mechanisms through which manufacturers can access those technologies while intellectual property owners receive value for their research and development.
With Wi-Fi now fundamental to everything from PCs and smartphones to smart appliances and enterprise infrastructure, patents underpinning wireless standards have become strategically important intellectual property assets.
The HP-Huawei agreement reflects that reality, providing both companies with reciprocal access to intellectual property as the global technology industry moves towards the next generation of wireless connectivity.
Sources: CNBC; HP Inc.; Huawei; Reuters
