President Marcelo – due to visit China next month – has been drawn into the legal wrangle between tech giant Huawei and a self-styled Portuguese inventor from Porto.
Says PĂșblico, businessman Rui Pedro Oliveira asked Marcelo for help.
How he did this is not clear.
PĂșblico says âthe office of Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa was brought up to speed with this story, as a result of news that the businessman sold the house in which he lived with his wife and daughter, now aged 10, to fight against Huawei for the theft of his patentâ.
Whether this means the president will take up the case when he gets to China is another matter.
But âthings have moved onâ since national media reported on Oliveiraâs situation (click here).
According to PĂșblico, Huawei is rejecting the story completely, saying it is ready to take legal action against Oliveira for âfalse accusationsâ.
The paper gives a bit of background on the spat, saying this is not the first case in which Huawei is being challenged for patent theft.
The company âfaces various accusationsâ in the United States, while Oliveira too is not just âan inventorâ: he is also a film producer behind Portugalâs most expensive animated film (on the centenary of the apparitions in FĂĄtima) âwhich has never come outâ.
Supermarket and food distribution group JerĂłnimo Martins is understood to have invested âŹ2 million towards merchandising for the production in 2017. At the time Oliveira said the film would be released in May 2018 (a full year after the centenary). Now he says it will be ready âwithin a yearâ.
In the meantime, PĂșblico has sent a list of ânew questionsâ to Huaweiâs headquarters in Portugal and hopes for some answers.
Says the paper, it was Huawei Portugal that responded to Oliveiraâs patent-theft claims, âeven though it is not the offshoot involved in the disputeâ.
natasha.donn@algarveresident.com
