SEATTLE -- T-Mobile emerged victorious in court this week, in a lawsuit involving a robot it created named Tappy.
The lawsuit that T-Mobile filed in 2014 against Chinese smartphone-maker Huawei concluded in federal court in Seattle after a jury decided that Huawei misappropriated trade secrets belonging to T-Mobile in 2012 and 2013.
The lawsuit claimed that two Huawei Device USA employees spied on Tappy, a smartphone-testing robot T-Mobile had in its Bellevue lab. The robot was developed to test smartphone functions with fast-moving, humanlike fingers.
The Seattle jury on Wednesday determined that Huawei had misappropriated T-Mobile's trade secrets and that it breached a handset supply contract between the two companies. The jury said T-Mobile should be awarded $4.8 million in damages because of the breach of contract.
But the jury also decided that Huawei's misappropriation was not "willful and malicious," and it did not award any damages from the trade-secret claim.
A Huawei spokesman said the company is evaluating its legal options.
-- The Seattle Times
Business on 05/20/2017