Swedish company Ericsson, lately a partner with Sony on the smartphone front, has entered the patent fray by filing a suit against South Korean company Samsung in the District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
Ericsson’s case is unusual compared to other ongoing legal bouts in that the company claims that Samsung had previously licensed the unspecified patents, in 2001 and again in 2007. The license agreement has since expired and Ericsson has said that, following two years of negotiations, Samsung has refused to license the patent in question under the same FRAND (Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory) terms that other licensees have agreed to.
Chief intellectual property officer at Ericsson Kasim Alfalahi said in a press release “Ericsson has over 30,000 patents and more than 100 license agreements with all major players in the industry. Ericsson has tried long and hard to amicably come to an agreement with Samsung and to sign a license agreement on FRAND terms. We have turned to litigation as a last resort.”