Huawei tried to steal T-Mobile’s Robot “Tappy”
According to an indictment unsealed by the U.S. Justice Department, the Chinese telecom device maker Huawei tried to steal trade secrets from T-Mobile involving a robot named “Tappy”.
The government says that between June 2012 and September 2014, Huawei repeatedly tried to steal information of the design of “Tappy”, a smartphone testing robot. His job is to mimic human interactions with a phone, as the name suggests, tapping on a mobile device with his rubber-tipped robotic arm. The robot can track problems, measure how long a certain task would take to be completed and how much battery would be drained performing tasks.
Don’t accept “No” as an answer
After failing to create their own smartphone testing robot called “xDeviceRobot”, Huawei US asked back in May 2012 if T-Mobile would license the Tappy robot technology, but was denied. According to the indictment, then Huawei tried to steal the design secret of Tappy.
Wolf in sheep’s clothing
On a June 2012 conference call, Huawei China asked Huawei USA employees to answer specific questions about the Tappy robot, including technical specifications, photos, and component serial numbers. In a request by Huawei US to test their phones on Tappy before releasing them on the global market, those questions were then asked the T-Mobile engineers.
Unauthorized photos were sent back to China. Engineers from Huawei succeeded in sneaking in the lab of the robot, trying to take photos, but were caught in the act and ordered out the facility. Only one Huawei USA engineer, in the indictment called by the name of “A.X.” was allowed to visit the lab and see Tappy. In 2013 the same engineer removed Tappy’s arm and put it in his laptop bag.
