Context:
- Wi-Fi 7, building on Wi-Fi 6, delivers higher throughput, lower latency, and more reliable Wi-Fi connectivity. These enhancements enable an exceptionally smooth experience for 8K video, gaming, AR/VR, remote work, online video conferencing, and cloud computing.
- Huawei has played a significant role in contributing to the development of WiFi technologies over successive generations. It is a major contributor to Wi-Fi 6 technologies and was the first to apply the OFDMA technology to Wi-Fi 6 (which can expand network capacity by up to four times, increasing the number of devices that a network can support from dozens to over 100). Huawei has also made significant contributions to the core features of Wi-Fi 7, including multi-link operation, multi-RU per STA, and preamble puncturing. Multiple reports rank Huawei as the global leader in Wi-Fi 7 patents, including GreyB (May 14, 2025 ip fray article) and Patently (January 19, 2026 ip fray article). In June, Huawei also announced the royalty rate for its WiFi-7 patents, which was set at US$0.5 per unit for consumer-grade products (June 18, 2026 ip fray article).
What’s new: Huawei and HP have signed a multi-year global patent cross-licensing agreement, which includes the licensing of several generations of Huawei WiFi patents to HP. The deal was reached through amicable negotiations, the companies have announced.
Direct impact: This agreement deepens the cooperation between Huawei and HP in the Wi-Fi field, which started with HP obtaining Huawei’s WiFi 6 patent license through Sisvel’s WiFi-6 patent pool (November 18, 2025 ip fray article). While the WiFi-6 patents will continue to be licensed through that program, the previous generations (WiFi 4 and 5, which HP still uses for some of its printers, for example) will be licensed bilaterally following this agreement. Huawei was a founding member of that Sisvel pool in 2022, and then became a founding member of Sisvel’s WiFi Multimode program (which includes WiFi-7 patents) in 2025. Sony, HPE, and ASUS have since signed up to that program as licensees (May 19, 2026 ip fray article). As noted by Huawei’s Strategic Planning & Key Projects Department head Emil Zhang in an ip fray interview, Huawei is very keen to up its participation in pools, especially when it comes to more “critical” verticals (April 20, 2026 ip fray article).
Wider ramifications:
- As HP is a Silicon Valley icon innovator and they are licensing Chinese technology, this deal shows that digital innovation is increasingly taking place in China.
- This deal also marks another important milestone for Huawei in the WiFi IP licensing field, the company notes. By the end of 2025, more than 1.6 billion consumer electronic devices (excluding mobile phones) had used Huawei’s independent innovations and leading technologies in this industry. And over the past 12 months alone, its portfolio has added 25 new licensees, including 11 Fortune Global 500 companies. Huawei has so far signed more than 260 patent licensing agreements with major ICT vendors in the U.S., Europe, Japan, and South Korea. Some of those include deals with vivo, Amazon (March 5, 2024 ip fray article), Ericsson, OPPO, Nokia, Xiaomi, and Sharp.
Huawei’s Chief IP Officer Alan Fan said in a statement today that the company is “pleased” to have reached this deal with HP, which is a “strong testament” to Huawei’s “persistent independent innovation” in cutting-edge fields in ICT.
Meanwhile, Steven Geiszler, who represented Huawei in the negotiations, also said:
“This is another successful licensing of Huawei patents, particularly in the area of standardized Wi-Fi technologies—while obtaining valuable reciprocal patent rights from HP Inc. I appreciate the professionalism and courtesy shown by HP’s negotiation team during this project.”