This week has not been the best for the Cupertino tech giant, but it"s about to get even worse. Ericsson, world pioneer in mobile technology and wireless communications, is filing seven lawsuits against Apple in a U.S. court, accusing it of infringing on 41 of its patents, including some "that are essential to the 2G and 4G/LTE standards", as well as patents related to the component design of Apple products, UI, location services, and iOS features.
If having to pay half a billion dollars to Smartflash sounds bad, now Ericsson is asking the International Trade Commission to ban sales of Apple"s iPhone and iPad in the U.S. market. Kasim Alfalahi, Ericsson’s chief intellectual property officer, stated that “we have offered them a license; they have a turned it down.”
Prior to mid-January 2015, Apple had been paying Ericsson royalties for using their patents, but the license expired, and after not being able to negotiate a renewal, the two companies proceeded to sue each other. Kristin Huguet, an Apple representative, has stated that “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 is accusing Ericsson of "abusive licensing practices", arguing that Ericsson “seeks to exploit its patents to take the value of cutting-edge Apple innovations”, and has refused the offer to have an arbitrator determine the proper rates for the licenses involved in their design.
Source: Ericsson News Center via Bloomberg