Ericsson Sues Apple Over Patent Issue: Catch All the Latest Buzz Here!
This time Apple is in a soup because of Ericsson. The company has sued Apple over claims to its owned patents with the US Internationsal Trade Commission and US District Court for the Eastern District Court. It has filed two complaints and seven lawsuits claiming that 41 of its patents are being violated.
The row started when Ericsson's patents with Apple expired last month. Apple then refused to renew taking a new license based on FRAND. Ericsson claims to have tried all means to reach an alternate solution but Apple has allegedly declined the offer.
"By refusing Ericsson's fair and reasonable licensing offer for patented technology used in Apple smartphones and tablets, Apple harms the entire market and reduces the incentive to share innovation," Ericsson said.
Ericsson's chief intellectual property officer, Kasim Alfalahi, claimed that its engineers have developed technology that Apple's products hugely benefit from. These include, live stream television shows and access of apps from phones. Alfalahi assured the commitment of his company to share its innovations and that they have acted in good faith to find a reasonable solution. However, Apple seems to be using their technology without a license and they have had to seek help from the court and ITC.
Just this week, Apple had been ordered to pay $533 million to Smartflash on willfully infringing patent rights of the company. There is expected to be an appeal by Apple against the ruling but Smartflash seems to have filed another lawsuit on the same disputed patents.
The disputed patents are related to 2G and 4G/LTE standards, semiconductor components, user interface software, location services and applications and iOS operating system.