“Swedish telecom equipment supplier Ericsson said on Wednesday it filed a complaint against Apple Inc over mobile technology license payments, responding to a lawsuit from the iPhone maker earlier this month,” Olof Swahnberg reports for Reuters.
“Ericsson said in its filing to a U.S. district court that Apple’s license to use technology developed by the Swedish firm and used in many smartphones and tablet computers had expired, and that two years of negotiations had not led to a new deal. Ericsson wants the court to determine whether its license offer to Apple is fair,” Swahnberg reports. “Apple filed its suit on Jan. 12, alleging the LTE wireless technology patents were not essential to industry cellular standards and that Ericsson was demanding excessive royalties.”
“If the dispute with Apple also went Ericsson’s way, the U.S. firm would have to pay it between 2-6 billion ($250-750 million) crowns annually, analysts said, based on estimates of levels of handset sales and royalty payments per phone,” Swahnberg reports. “ricsson had IPR revenues of 10.6 billion crowns ($1.31 billion) in 2013, including a lump-sum payment from Apple. In 2012 they amounted to 6.6 billion crowns.”
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How original Ericsson – filing against Apple once they filed against you first. Guess they’ll have some ‘splainin’ to do in court about how they justify their fee rate. Sounds onerous punishing a successful premium manufacturer like Apple.