Ericsson has filed a lawsuit against Samsung in a court in Texas, an Ericsson spokeswoman said today.
The suit charges Samsung with infringing on Ericsson mobile phone patents and is related to a lawsuit that Ericsson filed in February, Kristina Hagg-Blecher said.
In February, Ericsson filed lawsuits in Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and the US after the two companies failed to agree terms for a renewal of patent licences. Ericsson originally signed a licensing deal with Samsung in 2002 for patents related to several mobile phone technologies.
A Samsung spokeswoman said the company doesn't comment on ongoing legal issues.
The two aren't the only mobile companies embroiled in a battle over patent licence renewals. Nokia and Qualcomm are also in the midst of a bitter renegotiation process. Qualcomm has filed a complaint against Nokia with the US International Trade Commission and Nokia has filed a complaint against Qualcomm with the EC. The companies' agreement expires early next year.
Mobile standards such as GSM (global system for mobile communications) and WCDMA (wideband code division multiple access) were created by the combination of intellectual property from many different mobile phone vendors. In order to build phones and equipment based on the standards, the companies must pay each other for patents that contributed to the standard.
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