Huawei issues seminal Wi-Fi 6 patent licence to Buffalo

Huawei has entered into a patent licence agreement with Japanese networking and storage company Buffalo for its Wi-Fi 6 technology, the Chinese telecoms company announced today.

The agreement is Huawei’s first-ever overseas, Wi-Fi 6-focused licence, which provides Buffalo with access to certain Wi-Fi 6 enabled products under Huawei’s portfolio of standard essential patents (SEPs).

“We have broader licence agreements covering both Wi-Fi 6 and legacy Wi-Fi products, but this agreement marks the emergence of Wi-Fi 6 as the dominant Wi-Fi technology,” said Alan Fan, global head of intellectual property at Huawei. 

The deal, signed in September, is important because it signifies the maturity of the technology for large-scale standalone deployment. With the licence in place, Buffalo will now focus on developing products specifically focused on Wi-Fi 6.

Until now, Huawei had licensed Wi-Fi 6 along with other products within its SEP family, on the basis that most countries had yet to equip themselves to fully embrace the technology.

“Different countries are at different stages of adopting and applying different generations of Wi-Fi technologies,” said Fan. “The licensing agreement with Buffalo indicates that Japan is leading the industry in terms of Wi-Fi 6 adoption and application.”

Huawei is in talks with other multinational businesses to license Wi-Fi 6, and expects that this latest agreement will lay the groundwork for further adoption and application of the technology.

According to Huawei, Wi-Fi 6 offers a faster data rate, increased capacity and lower latency and power consumption, which makes it suitable for densely populated areas such as shopping complexes, airports, stadiums and smart homes.

Huawei owns more than 120 Wi-Fi 6 SEPs. The company currently has 100,000 granted patents across the world, and 3,500 of those are related to Wi-Fi technology.