Apple countersues Ericsson at ITC in escalating patent battle
Apple has fired back at Ericsson’s wave of complaints before the US International Trade Commission (ITC) this week by filing its own complaint with the agency.
This is the latest in an escalating fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) dispute turned patent infringement battle between the two companies.
The dispute crescendoed this week with Ericsson filing two lawsuits against Apple in the US District Court for the Western District of Texas, and filing a total of three simultaneous complaints for patent infringement with the ITC, first spotted by Foss Patents.
Now, Apple claims that Ericsson’s equipment infringes three patents for antennas and circuitry in a complaint filed Wednesday at the ITC.
The patents Apple has claimed are infringed by Ericsson are US Patent 9,882,282, 10,263,340, and 9,667,290.
Apple is seeking an immediate investigation on the “unlawful importation” of Ericsson’s products, a permanent exclusion order baring the import of the base stations and permanent cease-and-desist orders preventing Ericsson from marketing, advertising or demonstrating the products in the US.
Licensing talks fail
Following the expiration of patent licensing agreements, Apple refused to accept a renewed licensing agreement, claiming that Ericsson had violated FRAND terms. Ericsson bought legal action against Apple at the West Texas court in November, asking the court to rule that its terms were FRAND.
In this suit, Ericsson claimed that Apple had attempted to leverage its “superior financial position” to drive down royalty rates.
Apple then filed its own countersuit in the same Texas court in December, claiming that Ericsson had used “strong-arm tactics” to impede Apple ahead of negotiations.
On Monday, January 17, Ericsson sued Apple for infringing 12 of its telecom patents, filing two separate lawsuits with the Texas court.
Among these patents-in-dispute were 5G standard-essential patents used in Apple iPhones, iPads and Apple Watches.
Alongside these two lawsuits, Ericsson filed three simultaneous complaints with the ITC seeking an import ban of these Apple products.
This brings the total number of cases between the two companies pending in the US to seven. These cases comprise FRAND disputes, SEP enforcement actions, and non-SEP enforcementent actions.
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