Ericsson Brings Apple To Court In New Lawsuit

When you talk about Ericsson, you know that you are dealing with a pioneer in mobile phones, and this company has since been transformed to become the world’s largest maker of wireless networks. In fact, Ericsson has just filed seven (yes, count them!) new lawsuits in a U.S. court, where they are requesting the U.S. International Trade Commission to block Apple products from the U.S. market.

If Ericsson were to get their way, you can be sure that Apple is not going to be happy. Far from it, in fact. After all, Ericsson’s complaints happen to accuse Apple of infringing up to 41 patents which will concern some of the fundamental methods that mobile devices communicate as well as the related technology, including the likes of user interfaces, battery saving and the operating system.

Kasim Alfalahi, Ericsson’s chief intellectual property officer, shared “We have offered them a license; they have a turned it down. We’re not a company that’s planning to extract more than the value we put on the table.”

Apple did pay royalties to Ericsson prior to an expired license in mid-January, and when talks of renewal failed, both companies brought each other to court in a lawsuit, hoping for a resolution as to whether Ericsson’s royalty demands on fundamental technology were deemed to be fair and reasonable. It would definitely be interesting to see how the entire affair will pan out eventually.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Apple, Cellphones
Tags: ericsson, Legal, Patent