“Ericsson AB said Friday it is suing Apple Inc. for infringing technology patents it says are critical to many aspects of the U.S. tech giant’s popular mobile devices such as iPhones and iPads,” Dominic Chopping and Juhana Rossi report for The Wall Street Journal.
“The Swedish telecom equipment supplier said Apple had declined a licensing deal and refused an offer to have a court determine fair licensing terms by which both companies would be bound. ‘Our last offer was to have this determination either in [a federal court in] Texas or in a court selected by Apple in California. They declined,’ said Gustav Brismark, head of patent strategy at Ericsson,” Chopping and Rossi report. “Ericsson and Apple had a licensing agreement which required Apple to pay royalties for its use of technology patented by Ericsson. The agreement, originally struck in 2008, expired in January.”
Chopping and Rossi report, “Due to what Mr. Brismark called Apple’s refusal to negotiate, Ericsson has now filed two complaints with the U.S. International Trade Commission, and seven complaints in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.”
MacDailyNews Take: Rocket docket.
“In January, Ericsson and Apple said they were suing each other in a dispute over royalties for patents linked to high-speed wireless technology,” Chopping and Rossi report. “A spokesman for Apple on Friday referred to the company’s statement in January. ‘We’ve always been willing to pay a fair price to secure the rights to standards essential patents covering technology in our products. Unfortunately, we have not been able to agree with Ericsson on a fair rate for their patents so, as a last resort, we are asking the courts for help,’ Apple said in a statement on Jan. 14.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Pfft.
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