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Businesses China The Courts

Netgear Accused by Rival of China Smear To Fan Security Fear (msn.com) 34

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
An anonymous reader shares a report: California-based TP-Link says it may take a sales hit of more than $1 billion because of erroneous reports that the networking company's technology has been "infiltrated" by Beijing. In a lawsuit, TP-Link claims its competitor, Netgear, orchestrated a smear by planting false claims with journalists and internet influencers with the goal of scaring off customers.

Closely held TP-Link, which makes wireless routers, alleges in a complaint filed Monday that Netgear's campaign "threatens injury to well over a billion dollars in sales" and violates a 2024 settlement of a patent fight. That accord, in which TP-Link agreed to pay Netgear $135 million, includes a provision that the public company promises not to disparage its rival, according to the suit in Delaware federal court.

The suit comes as TP-Link faces growing scrutiny in Washington over national-security issues. US lawmakers from both parties have expressed concern that TP-Link's wireless equipment could be exploited by Chinese hackers following a series of attacks on its routers.

Netgear Accused by Rival of China Smear To Fan Security Fear More | Reply

Netgear Accused by Rival of China Smear To Fan Security Fear

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  • It needs commas or other punctuation.

  • Netgear vs. Snowden (Score:2, Interesting)

    by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

    It's interesting that there seems to be more paranoia over fears that the Chinese government may possibly have backdoors in network gear, than there is over US companies that we know for a fact have NSA backdoors in their network gear.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ichthus ( 72442 )
      Maybe it's because people already know or, at least, suspect NSA backdoors in Windows. The network gear is a moot point.

    • Re: (Score:2, Troll)

      by ArchieBunker ( 132337 )

      100% projection.

      The US government (ICE) tramples on peoples rights daily. Yet they never shut up about what China is supposedly doing. I fear my government much more than one on the other side of the planet. If the rights of undesirables can be violated then they certainly have no qualms about violating yours.

      They also never shut up about religion but I can't find any bible passages relating to rounding people up into camps.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Which is so clueless it is endlessly funny. Example: Some years ago I had a call with a well-known US maker of thin clients. There were some security concerns. Then they brought in their senior software/firmware people, which turned out to be located in Shanghai. So much for "made in the US".

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        The only laptops I'd consider to have even half decent security are Lenovo ones, and of course Lenovo is a Chinese company.

    • I'm more worried that China would brick TP-Link routers en masse as a sort of hybrid warfare tactic if, for example, the situation in Taiwan goes kinetic than I am that the NSA is going to gather any info I care about.

      (Assuming there are actually backdoors in TP-Link routers. I don't know.)

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        I don't think any security services are daft enough to have actual backdoors now. They just look for vulnerabilities and then keep quiet about them.

        So I'd be more worried about the mass bricking US made routers, world-wide. Do it as a false flag, pretending to be some teenage hacker. Give their own tech a nice boost too.

  • aren't.

  • Netgear used to be good (Score:5, Interesting)

    by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Wednesday November 19, 2025 @09:59AM (#65804521)

    Then their products turned to shit both on the hardware reliability side and on the software side. Seems their corporate morals are of equal quality. Hopefully this will kill them.

  • It worked (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    It worked on me, I was avoiding TP-Link products because of this [slashdot.org]. Am I wrong to do that?

    • It worked on me, I was avoiding TP-Link products because of this [slashdot.org]. Am I wrong to do that?

      You can install OpenWRT on many of their models and they seem to work quite well like that.

  • Frankly, I would not doubt TP-Link's assertion for a second.

    But, how will they prove that Netgear did it?

    Also, isn't Netgear also made in China?

  • When you drop one word to make it fit across your smartphone screen...
  • If a wireless router can't be updated to run OpenWRT I'm not buying it. If companies like TP-Link and Netgear just used stock OpenWRT they could save huge amount of development resources and at the same time offer a more robust and secure product.

  • Closely held TP-Link, which makes wireless routers, alleges in a complaint filed Monday that Netgear's campaign "threatens injury to well over a billion dollars in sales" and violates a 2024 settlement of a patent fight. That accord, in which TP-Link agreed to pay Netgear $135 million, includes a provision that the public company promises not to disparage its rival, according to the suit in Delaware federal court.

    So, are there any limits to the disparagement in the settlement? Is it limited to disparagement related to the patent fight? Or to anything? If Netgear calls TP-Link's wife fat, does that violate the settlement? Or if Netgear creates an ad that says that Netgear's products are superior?

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