Facing yet another trial over claims of stolen patents Apple appears to have thrown in the towel and settled with Ericsson.
The dispute had been going on for years and then just as the trial kicks off and after several losses in other court cases it’s been announced that Ericsson and Apple have settled their patent dispute.
Earlier this year Apple moved to sue Ericsson over a Standard-Essential Patent in a new Case in Munich.”
Then in late July a US Judge warned Apple of sanctions for misuse of court rules in their ‘Emergency Motion’ Relief against Ericsson.”
Last week the Ericsson v. Apple trial began in Texas then just as the case was being outlined it was announced via a press release “Ericsson and Apple sign global patent license agreement” which states the following:
“Ericsson and Apple have reached a multi-year, global patent license agreement between the two companies. The agreement includes a cross-license relating to patented cellular standard-essential technologies and grants certain other patent rights.
Furthermore, Ericsson and Apple have mutually agreed to strengthen their technology and business collaboration, including in technology, interoperability and standards development.
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This settlement ends the lawsuits filed by both companies in several countries, including in the United States District Court of the Eastern District of Texas, as well as the complaints filed before the United States International Trade Commission (USITC)
Christina Petersson, Chief Intellectual Property Officer at Ericsson says: “We are pleased to settle the litigations with Apple with an agreement, which is of strategic importance to our 5G licensing program. This will allow both companies to continue to focus on bringing the best technology to the global market.”
He added “Over several decades, Ericsson has been a leading contributor to 3GPP and to the development of global mobile standards for the benefit of consumers and enterprises everywhere. The value of Ericsson’s patent portfolio of more than 60,000 granted patents is strengthened by our leading position as 5G vendor, and annual investments of more than USD 4 b in R&D. The company is confident of growing its IPR revenues with new 5G agreements and by expanding into other licensing areas long term.”
