In a case that will be watched closely by both national security
personnel and intellectual property counsellors in the United
States and China, federal prosecutors unsealed a 10-count
indictment in the Western District of Washington State on Monday,
January 28, 2019 against Huawei Device Company Ltd. and Huawei
Device Company, U.S.A. Huawei is the largest supplier of telecom
equipment in the world and the indictment charges the company with
theft of trade secrets conspiracy, attempted theft of trade
secrets, seven counts of wire fraud and one count of obstruction of
justice.
According to the Justice Department, Huawei encouraged its
engineers to steal information related to T-Mobile’s
phone-testing robot named “Tappy,” while it served as
T-Mobile’s supplier1. Specifically, the Justice
Department alleges that Huawei constantly encouraged its engineers
to undertake the theft, with the engineers going so far as to take
a piece of Tappy for study and reproduction by
