Apple sues Ericsson over ‘strong-arm’ tactics in 5G patent negotiations
Chance Miller - Dec. 20th 2021 12:27 pm @ChanceHMiller
Apple is firing back at Ericsson amid an ongoing dispute over pricing for patent licensing in regards to technology “critical” for mobile telecommunications. This comes after Ericsson sued Apple in the same court, accusing the company of negotiating in “bad faith.”
As first reported by Bloomberg Law, Apple filed the lawsuit in a federal court in Texas on Friday. The company is accusing Ericsson of “violating its obligations to license patents essential to industry standards on fair rates and is making unreasonable demands.”
Apple and Ericsson have been embroiled in legal battles for years. In the process of negotiating this licensing deal in 2015, Apple and Ericsson sued each other. This ultimately led to Ericsson attempting to have the iPhone banned from US sale over a patent dispute.
The agreement reached in 2015 is ultimately the deal the two companies are trying to renew now, leading to a new round of lawsuits. In this lawsuit, Apple accuses Ericsson of “strong-arm tactics” in negotiations for this patented communication technology.
The original agreement covered networking technologies for 2G, 3G, and 4G. The new deal, of course, must also cover 5G technology as well. The report explains:
Apple Inc. filed a lawsuit accusing Ericsson AB of using “strong-arm tactics” in negotiations to renew a 2015 license for technology critical to industrywide telecommunications standards, particularly for 5G mobile networks.
The lawsuit, filed late Friday in federal court in Texas, alleges Ericsson is violating its obligations to license patents essential to industry standards on fair rates and is making unreasonable demands. Ericsson sued in the same court in October accusing Apple of negotiating in “bad faith.”
The 2015 agreement, which covered 2G, 3G and 4G technology and expires this month, was signed only after protracted litigation, and the dueling.
The eventual outcome here is, of course, that the two companies ultimately come to a deal as it would benefit both companies. As Patently Apple notes, however, Apple has hired two “rock-star” attorneys to work on the case
"Intellectuals solve problems; geniuses prevent them." - Albert Einstein
