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:
“We’ve always been willing to pay a fair price to secure the rights to standards essential patents covering technology in our products. Unfortunately, we have not been able to agree with Ericsson on a fair rate for their patents so, as a last resort, we are asking the courts for help,” said Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet.
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Apple is used to dealing with developing countries (read China) when arriving at a “fair price.” When it comes to dealing with a Swedish company that has technology they need, Apple needs the courts to arrive at a “fair price.”
Ericsson has been around since 1876 in one of the world’s wealthiest countries per capita and isn’t going anywhere. Apple can’t boss them around like the contractors they deal with. They should worry less about margins and getting back to software quality.
Totally agree with you
If Ericsson is charging an exorbanent rate for a patent that it shouldn’t, then why shouldn’t Apple take them to court if negotiations fail? What, they can’t do it because they’re Apple?
And BTW, their software quality is MUCH better when compared to the likes of MS and Google.
@Marcus
You tell them, get that legal team working on the software quality ASAP!
Isn’t Apple the company who wanted to charge Samsung fees that were 20x higher than all the other companies they were charging? Apple is such a pathetic company
Then why are you on a website all about Apple? You’re such a pathetic troll. :)
I think that you are the more pathetic one, since you are engaging me. And also, which part was I wrong about? My information was not incorrect, you are just a moron
Apple bitching about high prices!? Ha!! Pay it and eat it, that’s what you tell your customers!!
I can see this article attracted all the Fandroid flies frothing at the mouth, unbelievable.
Royalties on essential patents that allow it to work as a phone and get data should be fair. LTE is now standard. The royalty price should be too.
But unfortunately Apple didn’t feel that way a few years back and tried to make Samsung pay outrageous prices for their’s. We should bring up those comments from the 9to5Mac posts, and you’ll see that Apple fans believed that it was okay for Apple to charge more.