On June 11, Netgear, a prominent US networking equipment behemoth, lodged a counterclaim against its rival TP-Link in the Federal Court of Delaware. The accusation centers around TP-Link's alleged false advertising, which Netgear claims breaches the Lanham Act as well as trade regulations in California and Delaware. The crux of Netgear's argument is that TP-Link purports to have fully disengaged from its Chinese parent company and transformed into an autonomous US enterprise. However, in actuality, TP-Link persists in carrying out R&D and production operations within China. Netgear further alleges that TP-Link intends to re-register as a US company based in California in 2024 in an effort to obscure this reality.

Previously, TP-Link had initiated legal proceedings against Netgear, accusing the latter of maliciously associating TP-Link with cyberattacks perpetrated by a hacker group during an earnings call. This, TP-Link claimed, constituted a violation of a patent settlement agreement that had been reached between the two entities. In its counterclaim, Netgear refuted these accusations. It highlighted that TP-Link's workforce in China significantly outnumbers that at its US headquarters. Additionally, Netgear pointed out that TP-Link's 'Made in Vietnam' label is deceptive, given that the majority of its components are still sourced from China.