A New Legal Spat For Samsung: Lawsuit Filed By Ericsson

The Korean smartphone maker, Samsung, has had a lawsuit filed against it by Ericsson, the Swedish-based telecommunications equipment maker. Ericsson accuses Samsung of infringing on numerous wireless and networking patents.

The lawsuit comes after the failure of two years worth of negotiations between the two companies; over this period, Samsung did not sign a license agreement under “fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory” (FRAND) terms, which would have otherwise allowed it to use Ericsson's technologies.

According to Ericsson, several of the patents involved in the lawsuit are standard-essential or those that need handset makers to be used in order to adhere to the standards of the telecom industry. Ericsson has stated that all the key figures in the mobile market license their patents today.

Although Samsung has, over many years, licensed Ericsson's technologies, an expired deal which was signed by both companies in 2007 still needs to be renewed.

The chief intellectual property officer at Ericsson, Kasim Alfalahi, stated: “Ericsson has over 30,000 patents and more than 100 license agreements with all major players in the industry. Ericsson has tried long and hard to amicably come to an agreement with Samsung and to sign a license agreement on FRAND terms. We have turned to litigation as a last resort.”

Samsung was not available for immediate comment.

Samsung is presently involved in another global patent war with smartphone rival Apple, and the new lawsuit with Ericsson adds to this list of legal spats. In August, Samsung was found guilty of infringing on many of Apple's iPhone and iPad patents in the U.S., and this ruling amounted to over $1 billion in damaged. Both Apple and Samsung are expected to return to the U.S. court in 2014 to contest over another batch of infringement claims.

The lawsuit filed against Samsung was done so in the U.S. District Court of Eastern Texas, where Ericsson's U.S. headquarters are situated. (CY) Link