Telecom infrastructure company Ericsson announced that it has reached an agreement with Apple after a patent dispute. For the next seven years, Apple will pay a portion of its profits from iPhones and iPads to Ericsson in royalties.
Last February, Ericsson filed multiple patent infringement lawsuits in different jurisdictions. According to the Swedish company, Apple has infringed 41 patents in recent years regarding the iPad and iPhone , specifically patents related to GSM, UMTS and LTE technologies.
As expected, the two companies eventually reached an agreement and all lawsuits were dropped. This news is not particularly surprising since Ericsson holds over 35,000 patents. Many of them are related to wireless technologies and many mobile phone manufacturers had collaborated with it, but Apple seems to have been reluctant to do the same.
Apple will pay the Swedish company a lump sum for 2015 and then pay royalties. It is not clear how much money the company will earn, but considering Apple's significant position in the mobile market, the profit could be very large.
The Swedish company's licensing revenue for 2015 will be approximately 1.5 to 1.6 billion.
Nevertheless, the two companies seem to maintain good relations since they will collaborate in the field of 5G technologies, video network traffic management and network optimization. Because as the saying goes:
Keep your friends close and your enemies even closer!
