Apple has filed a lawsuit against Ericsson over the licensing fees for technology patents related to LTE wireless connectivity, Reuters reported today. According to Apple, the company has not infringed any of the patents in question, which it says are not essential to the LTE networking standard.
Ericsson calculates its royalty fees based on the price of a complete handset rather than only the component that integrates the patented technology.
Ericsson agreed to license these patents to Apple way back in 2008 just after the launch of the original iPhone, which didn’t even have 3G connectivity.
Should a court decide that Ericsson’s patents are in fact essential to the LTE standard, Apple says it will have no problem paying a fair price to license the technology. If Ericsson won’t charge a fair rate, the iPhone maker says it will rely on the court to put one in place.
From the Reuters report:
