HUAWEI Technologies filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Commerce Department on Friday challenging whether telecommunications equipment it sent from China to the United States, and then back to China, is covered by Export Administration Regulations, according to a court filing.

In the lawsuit, Huawei said that it shipped telecommunications equipment from China, including a computer server and Ethernet switch, to a testing laboratory in California. After the testing was done, the equipment was shipped back to China. No application for a license was made because none was needed, the lawsuit claims.

But the equipment was seized in Alaska by the U.S. Government, and no decision has been made about whether a license is required to ship it, the filing said.

“The equipment, to the best of HT USA’s knowledge, remains in a bureaucratic limbo in an Alaskan warehouse,” Huawei said in its lawsuit.

Huawei contends that the equipment did not require a license because it did not fall into a controlled category and because it was made outside the United States and was being returned to the same country from which it came. (SD-Agencies)