Ask the court to declare that its 5G patent licensing rates comply with the FRAND principle

Ericsson has filed a lawsuit against Apple in the U.S. Federal Court in Texas, asking the court to declare that the 5G wireless patent licensing rates it provides to Apple are in line with the fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory FRAND principles.

According to Reuters, Ericsson filed a lawsuit in Marshall, Texas on October 4 local time, accusing Apple of using improper strategies to reduce the patent fees it must pay and refusing to license patents on any terms other than those proposed by it.

The two companies previously settled a licensing dispute in a 2015 lawsuit in a California state court but have reached an impasse in negotiations for a new license, Ericsson said.

"For technology leaders like Ericsson that make early and substantial investments in R&D, the possibility to receive fair compensation through patent licensing is critical to ensuring new investments in innovation and the continued success of open, collaborative standardization," Ericsson spokeswoman Mikaela Idermark Stern said in a statement.

The report pointed out that under an international agreement, owners of patents essential to 5G standards must provide licenses on FRAND terms, and the dispute over FRAND licensing has triggered several high-profile "battles" in the telecommunications industry.

Ericsson said in its lawsuit that it began licensing its wireless patents to Apple when the iPhone was first released in 2008. Apple sued Ericsson in 2015 while negotiating a new license in California, and the case was settled with a second agreement later that year.

In addition, Ericsson pointed out that the company began negotiating a new licensing agreement with Apple in late 2020, but Apple has maintained its position that Ericsson's licensing rates violate the FRAND principle and the only way to make them FRAND-compliant is to "comply with Apple's self-declaration method."