Amidst the ongoing 5G patent battle between Apple and Ericsson, a Texas Judge has settled on a court date of June 2023. According to FOSS Patents, there will be a scheduling conference on March 16 between the two’s attorneys. This is later than Apple had hoped, as it proposed a December 2022 trial.
5G patent battle background
Apple has been licensing a number of Ericsson’s Standards-Essential-Patents (SEPs) as well as other non-SEPs. When these expired, the Cupertino-based company did not renew.
The legal battles began in 2015 when the two companies sued each other over patent licensing. At that time, Ericsson even tried to ban sales of the iPhone in the US. An agreement was later reached regarding disputes of 2G, 3G, and 4G technologies.
These efforts returned in October 2021 when Ericsson contacted Apple to reinstate the licensing offer under publicly announced 5G multimode royalty rates.
What’s going on currently
Just last week, Ericsson accused Apple of wasting court resources ‘by forcing unnecessary litigation on two fronts.’ This came after Apple sued Ericsson in December 2021, claiming the Swedish company violated FRAND (fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory) terms. A month later, Ericsson filed suit against Apple for infringement of multiple 5G patents. Apple struck back with a countersuit seeking a US import ban against Ericsson’s mobile base station.
Check out our recent coverage of Ericsson trying to ban the reselling of iPhones in Brazil.
What happens next
It looks like the ITC will initiate four investigations between the two companies. Ericsson brings one SEP complaint and two non-SEP complaints while Apple brings one non-SEP complaint.
It is also worth mentioning that the European Union’s executive branch of government is working on creating new guidelines of SEP-specific legislation.
