The filing, submitted to a U.S. district court, indicates this the licensing transgressions have occurred ‘in multiple jurisdictions’
Ericsson is suing Lenovo and its subsidiary Motorola Mobility for allegedly infringing 5G patents. The filing, submitted to a U.S. district court, indicates that the licensing transgressions have occurred “in multiple jurisdictions” and that despite the Swedish Vendor’s efforts to come to an agreement with Lenovo, the Chinese electronics company has remained unresponsive.
The new lawsuit comes less than a year after Ericsson settled its years-long legal dispute with Apple over iPhone-related and other patents. The settlement involved a new multi-year global patent license deal and joint commitment to “strengthen their technology and business collaboration, including in technology, interoperability and standards development.” At the time, Ericsson said the agreement includes global cross-license for patented cellular standard-essential technologies, as well as other patent rights.
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For its part, Lenovo was tied up a U.K. court with InterDigital up until March of this year, when a ruling was issued requiring the former to pay the latter $138.7 million for a license to use its portfolio of patents.
It’s not all confrontational in the licensing world, however. Lenovo entered a licensing deal with NTT Docomo in December 2022 covering the operator’s standard essential patents, while this past August, Ericsson and Huawei agreed to a long-term, global patent licensing agreement that includes 3G, 4G and 5G network infrastructure and consumer devices, granting global access to each other’s technologies. “A balanced approach to licensing ensures that the interests of both patent holders and implementers are served fairly, driving healthy, sustainable industry development for the benefit of consumers and enterprises everywhere,” commented Christina Petersson, Ericsson’s chief intellectual property officer.