6 January, 2016
Ericsson and Apple are known for their famous patent litigation wars and animosity over the same. But this time, when north met south, it didn’t create pandemonium but instead slipped through the patent war history cracks and signed up for friendship.
Recently, Ericsson, the Swedish mobile telecom gear maker giant, announced that it had signed a patent licence deal with Apple Inc. over a technology which would help smartphones and tablets in connecting with mobile networks. Let us remind you that Ericsson has previously been entangled under the Fair, Reasonable & Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) Agreement in India, for neglecting the obligations under the FRAND Agreement with respect to patent licensing terms.
But it seems that both tech giants have put this litigation war in the past, having turned over a new leaf with this new patent licence deal. This deal ends Ericsson’s long hauled dispute with Apple, which is considered as one of the biggest legal wars in mobile technology. Ericsson stated that the new patent licence deal would pave the way for cooperation between the companies on other future technologies.
This new deal looks promising to both tech giants, as both of them estimate a major increase in the overall revenue, earned individually. The said agreement is considered to be comprehensive, covering the latest 4G-LTE generation of mobile technology, as well as the earlier 2G and 3G technologies. While 5G is also being aimed at, the same is yet to unfurl. Ericsson has more than 100 patent licensing agreements and holds approximately around 37,000 patents with respect to mobile communication.The said
agreement is for a period of 7 years, whereby Apple is said to make an initial payment to Ericsson with the latter paying royalties.
This development between both has certainly raised a couple of eyebrows in the intellectual property (IP) industry, but it has come at a time when IP infringement is at its peak, more so done by the major companies. Further encouragement of such multinationals would definitely pave the way, for focussing on bringing in more new technology to the international market, therefore opening such joint business ventures as well as opportunities in the near future.
For further information, please contact:
Divya Srinivasan, LexOrbis
mail@lexorbis.com
