Apple Brings Its First Ever SEP Suit Against Ericsson

Image by louvainlaneuve9 from Pixabay

13 JULY 2022 - Wireless tech company Ericsson seems to have poked the bear. I told you earlier this week of a court in Bogota, Colombia barring the import, sale, or advertising of any 5G products made by Apple, over alleged patent infringement. Now, a piece from 9 to 5 Mac says “Apple appears to be set on obtaining an injunction against the import and sale of Ericsson products.”

Ah yes, the old “I’m rubber, you’re glue” strategy.

The piece outlines a legal escalation between the two companies, starting when Apple stopped paying Ericsson for the use of its 5G patents. This seems to have been in the hopes of negotiating a better deal, according to the report. Apple then sued Ericsson last December, “claiming that the Swedish company violated FRAND terms.” 9 to 5 Mac says:

This is international law that requires standards-essential patents (SEPs: technology without which it is impossible to make a smartphone) on terms which are fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory [FRAND]. In other words, Apple claimed that Ericsson was charging too much for the patent license fees.

This led to suits and countersuits, all the way to Colombia - where you can no longer buy or even hear about 5G Apple devices. “Of course you know,” as Daffy Duck might say, “this means war.”

Apple has some standards-essential patents of its own, picked up when it acquired Intel’s modem business in 2019. Noting a number of firsts in the Apple v. Ericsson v. Apple v. Ericsson v. Apple fight, the 9 to 5 piece has a report from Foss Patents noting a new one:

…the first-ever SEP lawsuit brought by Apple – which has been on the receiving end of SEP assertions for well over a decade but is only now striking back with a SEP for the first time in its history.

According to the report, the “patent in question is for 4G/LTE tech.” Yeah, remember that? While Apple has not said that it’s trying to stop the sale and import of Ericsson products, Foss Patnets says the court in Munich where it’s brought the latest case is “the world’s #1 SEP injunction hotspot…”