First 3G LTE License Agreements for Ericsson
First 3G LTE License Agreements for Ericsson
24th June , 2009
Sweden : Ericsson has signed license agreements for LTE essential patents. Ericsson is a strong advocate for reasonable aggregated royalties and holds the industry's strongest LTE patent portfolio.
Ericsson is now taking the lead in establishing an industry practice to promote healthy market growth. This builds on Ericsson's present global licensing program for GSM/WCDMA, now composed of more than 80 agreements and generating significant revenue.
Building on extensive experience in GSM and WCDMA, Ericsson has been driving the development of next-generation mobile technology -- 4G/LTE -- ever since its OFDM research in the early 1990s. Already today, at the dawn of the technology, Ericsson possesses a substantial number of standard essential patents that are key to developing 4G/LTE products.
Championing industry practice on FRAND (Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory) licensing, Ericsson makes its technology available to others. Consequently, licensing arrangements will be made according to Ericsson's proportional share of the standard IPR that relates to the relevant product category. Ericsson likewise honors the same industry practice by ensuring a maximum cumulative rate on LTE technology not exceeding a single-digit rate. This is achieved through bilateral negotiations undertaken in good-faith.
Kasim Alfalahi, Vice President and Head of IPR Licensing and Patent Portfolio at Ericsson says: "This is an important milestone for us to demonstrate our LTE leadership. We aim to strike a balance between providing value for our customers and earning a fair return on our significant R&D investments when other parties have the opportunity to benefit from them."