In what is considered as the Chinese firm’s first intellectual property challenge against the world’s top mobile maker, Huawei Technologies on Wednesday said it sued Samsung Electronics claiming infringement of smartphone patents.

Allegations by Huawei is that Samsung had made unlicensed use of fourth-generation (4G) cellular communications technology, operating systems and user interface software in its smartphones. The Chinese company has already filed lawsuits in the United States and China seeking compensation for the alleged violation of patents claimed to be their own by Nuawei.

“We hope Samsung will … stop infringing our patents and get the necessary licence from Huawei, and work together with Huawei to jointly drive the industry forward,” Ding Jianxing, president of Huawei’s Intellectual Property Rights Department, said in a statement.

It would “take appropriate action to defend Samsung’s business interests” without elaborating further, Samsung told Reuters.

In earlier years, Chinese firms have been at the receiving end of patent infringement allegations and related lawsuits and the latest lawsuit filed by Huawei marks a reversal of roles in China. Different intellectual property laws outside of China have slowed overseas expansion in the smartphones sector even as makers within China have grown rapidly in recent years.

Following a patent infringement complaint from telecom equipment maker Ericsson last year, Xiaomi was forced to briefly halt sales of handsets in India.

There has been a flurry of patent lawsuits in recent years, most notably between Samsung and U.S. rival Apple in the broader smartphone industry.

Claiming the Korean maker and the current largest manufacturer of smartphones and regular mobile phone sin the world, used unlicensed technology and imitated the look of the iPhone, Apple had sued Samsung in the United States in 2011.

However both the rival companies agreed in August 2014 to drop all litigation outside the United States but not before each of them had filed a number of suits against each other in several other jurisdictions apart from the United States.

There was a time in the recent past when Samsung had become the biggest smartphone vendor in China. However its fortunes declined as it was leapfrogged by local brands and lost its market share in China to late-comer Apple. Trailing Huawei, OPPO, Vivo, Apple and Xiaomi, it is now ranked sixth by sales in China.

Laying focus on researching and developing technologies, products and wireless communications standards, the Shenzhen-based Huawei had invested 59.6 billion yuan ($9.2 billion), or 15 percent of annual revenue last year, the company said in its statement.

Huawei has been granted 50,377 patents globally as of Dec. 31, 2015, the company said. Huawei is known to generate most of its revenue making telecommunications infrastructure.

Samsung had invested 14.8 trillion won ($12.45 billion) in research and development as well as intellectual property last year and the world’s No.1 memory chip and television maker also said in a May 16 filing it held 110,145 patents globally at end-2015.

(Adapted from CNBC)