Apple has taken Swedish firm Ericsson to court over LTE wireless network patents.
According to Apple, Ericsson is demanding over-the-odds royalties for patents that aren’t essential to industry cellular standards, as reported by Reuters.
This has led Apple to claim it isn’t infringing Ericsson’s patents, claiming that it doesn’t actually owe any royalty payments.
Apparently, Apple says Ericsson wants a payout for the LTE tech valued as a percentage of an entire smartphone or tablet device.
Apple instead wants the company to base the royalties on the value of the processor that uses the technology.
The fruity firm is hoping one of two things happens. The best case scenario for Apple is that the courts deem Ericsson’s patents as non-essential, and waive any royalty demands targeted at Apple.
The next best thing would be that if the courts to decide Ericsson’s patents are essential, then they at least force the Swedish company to adopt a more appropriate royalty rate.
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Apple spokesperson Kristin Huguet said: “We’ve always been willing to pay a fair price to secure the rights to standards essential patents covering technology in our products.”
She continued: “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’s current patent-licensing agreement with Ericsson dates back to 2008, shortly after the first iPhone launch.
In other news regarding Apple's legal team, the company has announced a new settlement agreement to resolve a class action lawsuit alongside Google, Intel, and Adobe over employee poaching.
