The droid in question is called 'Tappy', and was built by T-Mobile to help the firm test smartphones.
Apparently Huawei is now "using T-Mobile's stolen robot technology to test non T-Mobile handsets."
A Huawei spokesperson has since accepted that two employees did indeed do some inappropriate things and were subsequently fired. The firm still contests the suit, however. T-Mobile says its robot would touch smartphones just like a human - but faster - to help speed up testing processes.
The firm reckons that around two years ago, a Huawei engineer nabbed one of Tappy's fingertips and concealed it in his laptop back. T-Mobile doesn't specify the damages it is seeking, but claims that because of Huawei's industrial espionage, it had to spend 'at least tens of millions of dollars' switching to other handsets," reads the report.
William Plummer, a spokesperson for Huawei, says there is 'some truth' to the complaint of the two employees doing the dirty, and promises to work with the legal system to resolve the issue. Those employees were terminated for violating our business conduct guidelines," explains Plummer. "As for the rest of the complaint, Huawei respects T-Mobile's right to file suit and we will cooperate fully with any investigation or court proceeding to protect our rights and interests."
Another techie lawsuit kicked off just last week, as it emerged Nvidia was filing its first ever patent lawsuit against none other than Samsung and Qualcomm
