A small British technology company has accused Huawei and Goodix, China’s largest developer of smartphone fingerprint sensors, of infringing on its technology and has launched legal proceedings against both companies.

WaveTouch, a UK registered and owned company that was spun out of Technical University in Copenhagen, has filed claims against the two Chinese companies in the District Court of Düsseldorf, one of the main European patent courts.

WaveTouch alleges that a system that it designed to improve the accuracy of fingerprint readers underneath modern smartphone screens has been replicated by Goodix for a range of ultra-thin chips and used in millions of smartphones. It said Huawei has incorporated the disputed chip technology into a number of its smartphones including the P40 and the Mate 40.