Ericsson in global patent licensing battle with Apple
ERICSSON had sued Apple in three countries as it ratcheted up a global licensing battle between the companies, it said on Friday.
The suits in Germany, the UK and the Netherlands add to US filings seeking a patentlicensing agreement for technologies fundamental to the way mobile devices communicate and for intellectual property related to user interfaces, batteries and operating systems.
Apple continued to sell products globally without a licence from Ericsson, the wireless-network maker said on Friday.
“Everybody needs to take a licence for the technologies we are providing to them,” Kasim Alfalahi, Ericsson’s chief intellectual property officer, said at the company’s Stockholm headquarters. “It’s a very serious thing, regardless of who the company is.”
Ericsson shares jumped as much as 6.3 percent and advanced 3.3 percent to 93.75 kronor (R135) in the afternoon in Stockholm, giving the company a market value of 309 billion kronor. Apple’s shares rose 1.4 percent to $126.97 (R151.20) in New York.
The issue has split the technology industry between those who have created some of the basic ways phones operate and those that use the technology in complex devices.
Apple had been paying royalties to Ericsson before a licence expired in midJanuary. When talks over renewal failed, the companies sued each other, seeking court rulings on whether Ericsson’s royalty demands on fundamental technology were fair and reasonable. Fair price An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment on the matter and referred to a January statement that the company has “always been willing