Ericsson And Huawei Extend Patent Sharing Agreement

Ericsson and Huawei have extended their patent cross-licensing agreement that will see the two rivals continued to share wireless technology in their networking equipment.

Under the terms of the agreement, both firms will able to access and implement standard essential patents (SEP) for the likes of GSM, UMTS and LTE. Holders of SEPs are required to offer other companies licenses under fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms.

Few terms of the new deal have been disclosed apart from that Huawei will make royalty payments to Ericsson based on actual sales from this year onwards.

Earlier this year, Ericsson and Apple started a legal battle about the latter’s use of the former’s wireless technology in the iPhone and iPad. Apple alleges the Swedish networking firm is demanding excessive royalties and that the patents in question are not essential to the LTE standard. The two firms settled in December.

Patent deal

“We are pleased to extend our global cross license agreement with Ericsson,” said Jianxin Ding, head of global intellectual property of Huawei. “This new agreement reflects the two leading companies’ joint view that innovation and intellectual property rights shall be protected, and reasonable compensation for the implementation of intellectual property rights is vital to promoting technology innovation, sharing and standardising technology, driving and accelerating industry evolution.”

“The extension shows our commitment to drive innovation and industry development,” added Kasim Alfalahi, chief intellectual property officer at Ericsson. “In the future, everyone and everything will be connected through the Networked Society and Internet of Things. Our role is to drive this transformation, opening up new ways to innovate, to collaborate, and to empower people, business, and society.”

The two companies will have a much larger competitor to contend with in 2016 following the completion of the merger between Nokia and Alcatel Lucent, which celebrating its first day as a combined company.

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