The US Department of Justice is looking into the claim, potentially adding to existing criminal cases against Huawei, the WSJ reported last week.

Huawei – considered the world leader in superfast 5G equipment and the world’s number two smartphone producer – was  swept into a deepening trade war in recent months between Beijing and Washington, which has seen punitive tariffs slapped on hundreds of billions worth of dollars of two-way trade.

The latest controversy involves Portuguese inventor Rui Pedro Oliveira who claims Huawei had a meeting with him and then essentially ripped off one of his designs in order to produce the Huawei EnVizion 360 panoramic camera.