Apple is being sued by Ericsson for continuing to use the Swedish company’s 5G patents on iPhones after the license contract expired.
According to AppleInsider, two lawsuits against Apple have been filed by Ericsson with a total of 12 separate patents. The lawsuit comes after lengthy negotiations with Apple failed to end before the company’s previous licensing agreement expired.
The lawsuit said the lawsuit was filed in the Western District of Texas court and at least in an unspecified area outside the US.
“Apple first licensed Ericsson’s 2G and 3G essential patents in 2008 when it released the first iPhone,” said Ericsson. In 2015, Apple and Ericsson performed another global cross-licensing, which included patents from both parties related to 2G, 3G, and 4G network standards. When that license expires, Apple can no longer license the essential Ericsson patents.”
The first lawsuit includes four patents, including patent “355” related to “transmission of system information over a download share channel”. Meanwhile, the second lawsuit includes eight patents, of which patent “454” relates to WAN and LAN roaming.
These lawsuits cannot be brought until the license expires, but they are not the first legal remedy Apple or Ericsson have used. In October 2021, Ericsson sued Apple with the aim of preventing the company from filing a surprise lawsuit that attempted to devalue the patents by arguing that they were unnecessary. Apple then sued Ericsson in December 2021, alleging that the company was using “hard-hitting tactics” in its patent negotiations.
These legal battles are similar to a series of lawsuits that both companies went through in 2015. The lawsuits were subsequently settled with a new patent licensing agreement, and that’s it. the agreement expired to open this new war.