In April, a Colombian court ruled that Apple infringed one of Ericsson’s 5G patents, and Ericsson subsequently filed a $50,000 bond to allow the court to enforce the law, which in July issued a preliminary injunction against Apple’s Colombian subsidiary, banning the sale and import of Apple’s 5G devices, the iPhone and iPad, in the country.
Apple has asked Ericsson in U.S. federal court in Texas to compensate it for any damages caused by the Columbia court’s injunction, although the request was denied by the court, according to a new report from Reuters.
U.S. Federal Court Judge Rodney Gilstrap of Texas found that the Columbia court order did not affect his case and said, “Apple has failed to show that the Columbia order caused any imminent harm that would justify its claim for damages.”
Ericsson reportedly sued Apple in U.S. federal court in Texas in October 2021, asking the court to declare that the 5G wireless patent license rates it offered to Apple complied with the FRAND principles of fairness, reasonableness and non-discrimination. According to Apple, the parties agreed that the court would determine the appropriate terms of the global license.
Apple told a U.S. federal court in Texas earlier this month that Ericsson had filed more than a dozen lawsuits against Apple in Colombia and several around the world without prior notice in an effort to get Apple to comply with its demands before the December trial.
Ericsson is said to have filed patent infringement lawsuits against Apple in at least six jurisdictions, including the United States (ITC and district courts), Germany, the Netherlands, Brazil, Colombia and the United Kingdom, over the failure of negotiations to renew a seven-year telecommunications patent licensing contract first agreed between the two parties in 2015.
