By Telecom Lead Team:
Ericsson and ZTE have resolved patent license issues by dropping all lawsuits
and ZTE signing royalty-bearing license agreement to certain Ericsson patents.
In April 2011 Ericsson filed lawsuits in Germany, UK and
Italy against ZTE for infringing on several Ericsson patents related to GSM and
3G/UMTS cellular technology.
The parties have now signed a global cross-licensing
agreement and both parties have also agreed to drop all litigation.
“Ericsson has the strongest patent portfolio in the
industry with over 27,000 patents and any company which sells mobile devices or
systems needs a license from Ericsson. We have signed more than 90 patent
agreements with different vendors worldwide. Now we can add ZTE to this
group,” said Kasim Alfalahi, Chief Intellectual Property Officer at
Ericsson.
ZTE
signs a royalty bearing cross-licensing agreement that complies with Fair,
Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) royalty compensation for access to
part of Ericsson’s patent portfolio.