STOCKHOLM, Sweden—In a lawsuit filed Monday in four countries, L.M. Ericsson is alleging that Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. is infringing on its patents by continuing to do business without renewing intellectual property licenses.
Ericsson claims select Samsung phones infringe on 15 of its patents related to GSM, GPRS and EDGE technology.
Asked for the strategy underlying the filing, Kathy Egan, an Ericsson spokeswoman, said, “We prefer to negotiate rather than litigate.” She declined to comment on whether the goal of the lawsuit was to bring Samsung back to the negotiating table to complete a new agreement. Legal skirmishing over patents is relatively common in high-tech industries, though many are resolved prior to trial.
A Samsung spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.
The lawsuit was filed in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and The Netherlands, and, according to Egan, it asks for “fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms” to resolve the impasse that apparently developed after the two parties’ previous agreement expired on Dec. 31, 2005.
