With Huawei being caught up in all manner of controversies, it was easy for its video-related announcement to slide under the radar unnoticed this week, as the mobile mountain dropped its guard and adopted the AVC/H.264 patent portfolio after a relatively short-lived dispute. The decision signifies a willingness to work with the western world, which may be part of the ongoing process of persuading US allies that Huawei is a partner to be trusted. Clearly Huawei is putting much more energy into triumphing in 5G markets than in the video codec space – but the about-face is unexpected and significant nonetheless, given that Apple and Samsung are the two lead players and beneficiaries of MPEG LA, the AVC and HEVC…