ZTE, Ericsson Drop Suits

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ZTE, Ericsson Drop Suits

10 September 2012

ZTE Corp, the second-largest maker of phones in China, and Ericsson AB have agreed to drop their ongoing patent lawsuits against each other, the companies have said. ZTE told the Shenzhen Stock Exchange that the companies are waiting on court approval to move forward. An Ericsson statement indicated the companies had also signed a global cross-licensing agreement.

The ZTE statement said that “extensive discussion and consultation [the companies] have agreed to withdraw all patent infringement litigations against each other.” Pending lawsuits had included a ZTE suit against Ericsson in China and Ericsson suits against ZTE in the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy.

“Ericsson has the strongest patent portfolio in the industry with over 27,000 patents and any company which sells mobile devices or systems needs a license from Ericsson,” Kasim Alfalahi, chief intellectual property officer at Ericsson, said in the statement. “We have signed more than 90 patent agreements with different vendors worldwide. Now we can add ZTE to this group.”

Ericsson’s lawsuits had alleged infringement of handset and network technology patents.