Intellectual property woes are at the heart of China’s newest tech industry scandal. Electronics giant Huawei has accused six of their former employees of leaking confidential information to rival company LeEco. The six ex-Huawei engineers and designers have been detained by Chinese officials for probing.
According to Huawei, the employees violated intellectual property rights of their ex-employer by using the company’s documentation and code at Coolpad, a subsidiary of LeEco.
Coolpad has responded that Huawei’s claims concern a patent application made before the six employees even joined LeEco’s subdivision. Reportedly, the ex-employees joined Coolpad along with ex-Honor president Liu Jiangfeng last year, who then became the new CEO of the company. Jiangfeng has vehemently denied Huawei’s allegations as “coincidence.”
Wu Bin, former chief architect of Huawei’s P6 handset, is among the detainees and is being charged for “huge losses” to his ex-employer.
Coolpad and parent organization LeEco have both denied Huawei’s claims as “pure rumor.” The Shenzhen Public Securities Department is currently investigating the scandal.
