Tag: apple mobile patents

Apple and Ericsson end mobile technology war to propel devices forward

| December 28, 2015

The two tech giants have agreed to stop their patent battles so they can create a new smartphone generation together.

Apple Inc and Ericsson AB, the Swedish telecom firm have come to an agreement to settle over alleged patent infringements, so that they can move forward together in improving mobile technology.

This is meant to lay the foundation for the next generation of smartphones that will be considerably faster.

Ericsson is the largest manufacturer of wireless equipment in the world. By the time of the writing of this article, it had not disclosed all the terms of the agreement that was reached between itself and Apple. However, it did state that the settlement includes a type of cross-license that includes the patents owned by both Ericsson and Apple, including the LTE, UMTS and GSM standards used in mobile technology such as smartphones.

Ericsson came to a similar form of mobile technology settlement with Samsung in 2014.

Mobile Technology - Working TogetherApple, the second largest smartphone maker in the world after Samsung, holds onto a worldwide market share of 13 percent, according to data from Gartner. It will be making an opening payment to Ericsson as a part of the agreement and this amount will be followed by additional payments in the form of royalties.

That said, the specifics of the financial side of the agreement were not revealed by either company. Still, this was seen as highly appealing to investors, who initially cause the price of Ericsson shares to spike by 5 percent.

The disputes in question between Ericsson and Sony were involving 41 separate patents. They were initially filed by Ericsson in February with regards to some of the mobile technology that was used in both iPads and iPhones. This occurred following Apple’s choice to decline a prior licensing agreement it had been maintaining with Ericsson, as Apple claimed that too much money was being asked for the renewal. This new agreement has set all the patent litigation aside. This type of legal battle is highly common in the mobile tech world as it is estimated that any given smartphone has around 250,000 patents.

Mobile patents truce agreement formed between Google and Apple

| May 20, 2014

These two technology giants have agreed to stop suing each other and to work together for systemic reforms.

Google and Apple have now come to an agreement that will enter them into a ceasefire within their mobile patents war, in which neither of them will sue the other and in which they will both work together in the effort to encourage patent system reforms in the United States.

The current truce is one of the outcomes of a massive trial that started back in 2010 between the two.

In that year, the trial in which Apple had sued Motorola Mobility was started. The latter company is the hardware manufacturer that was purchased by Google in order to divide it up and sell off its parts, maintaining a boatload of technology and mobile patents. As a result of the way that the lawsuit played out, a joint statement from the two companies now reads that “Apple and Google have agreed to dismiss all the current lawsuits that exist directly between the two companies.” It added that “Apple and Google have also agreed to work together in some areas of patent reform. The agreement does not include a cross license.”

It appears that some of the mobile patents lawsuits from Apple will continue, though not directly against Google.

Mobile patents truce - Google and AppleThe wording of the statement that was made by the companies indicates that the lawsuits that are underway from Apple against mobile device manufacturers that are using the Android operating system, from Google, would not cease. This includes the patent suit opened by Apple against Samsung that has brought about two massive headline making trials in San Jose, California, as well as comparable legal battles occurring in other nations.

In both of the high profile trials against Samsung, Apple has come out the winner. However, the second judgment’s damages were notably lower. It was in that second case that newer Samsung mobile devices were included.

The lawsuits against many of the companies using Android were carrying out a vow by Steve Jobs, the late CEO of Apple, in which he said that the company would go “thermonuclear” against Google for having copied the iOS for the iPhone in what he referred to as “grand theft.”. That statement was revealed in the Walter Isaacson biography of Jobs which was published after the Apple co-founder’s death.