Ericsson and Samsung are once again on the battleground of Patent Infringement

The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) is planning to open an investigation after Ericsson claimed a commission of patent infringement by Samsung. Ericsson alleged Samsung infringing some of its patents related to 4G and next-generation 5G wireless cellular communications infrastructure systems. Ericsson said, “The Samsung products infringing on our patents are on the tower side of cellular communications, including antennas, radios and base stations and core network products that wirelessly connect to mobile phones and other cellular equipment.” Ericsson not only filed its complaint with the ITC but also sued Samsung in U.S. District Court in Texas over patent infringement.

Ericsson stated in its compliance with the ITC that there would be no disruption in the services through already established cellular networks if its challenge was successful. However, Ericsson’s domestic and foreign production along with products from other suppliers will be able to meet domestic market demand as well. “Ericsson and Nokia both currently supply 4G and 5G cellular infrastructure products that could replace infringing Samsung products,” the complaint states.

Ericsson further used Samsung’s own complaint as evidence that was against the Swedish vendor stating it could fulfill U.S. demand, citing its Lewisville, Texas manufacturing facility. “And if Samsung is correct that competing suppliers could meet U.S. market demand for base stations in a commercially reasonable time if Ericsson’s base station were excluded from the United states (id)., then Ericsson, Nokia, and others can meet domestic market demand if Samsung’s smaller volume of cellular infrastructure products is excluded from the United States,” Ericsson stated in its complaint.

Samsung told the ITC during the investigation that Ericsson had not provided any kind of factual support for that argument. Samsung said in a court filing that its unit inU.S. provided thousands of 5G base stations over the last two years to U.S. mobile carriers that include Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T Inc. The ITC said in a press release that it has not yet come to any decision on the merits of this case. It will further assign the case to an administrative law judge who will then schedule an evidentiary hearing and make an initial determination to the question of whether there is any kind of violation on part of Samsung.

It is not for the first time that such kind of case occurred, every other day 100s of such cases arise and this number is increasing day by day with the development of technology along with the increasing awareness to protect their IP amongst the people. Even the last patent royalty dispute occurred in the year 2012 between the two companies when Ericsson took legal action against the South Korean company making allegations of patent infringements. It took almost two long years to resolve this issue. Samsung had to pay the Swedish company US $650 million along with years of royalties to put a full stop to the battle.