Huawei and Ericsson have reached an agreement long-term related to patent licenses. The agreement, which establishes that the two companies will share various patentscovers various technologies, including those related to standards such as 3GPP, ITU, IEEE and IETF for 4G and 5G networks. But also those that exist for 3G networks, still in use in many countries for various purposes.
This agreement covers sales of both network infrastructure technologies and consumer device technologies, and means that each of these companies will be able to use the other’s standardized and proprietary technologies.
Christina Petersson, CIPO of Ericsson, has confirmed that the balanced approach with which they have adopted the agreement favors both parties, but also consumers and companies around the world. The Swedish company expects the proceeds from these licensing deals to reach around $1 billion. Petersson also recalled that both companies have made great contributions to mobile communication standards, and has recognized the value of both intellectual property.
Today, Ericsson has some 60,000 patents, and is one of the leading providers of 5G technology. As for Huawei, only in 2022 it applied for 4,505 patents before the European Patent Office.
Alan Fan, Head of Huawei’s Intellectual Property DepartmentFor his part, he commented that the two companies value each other’s intellectual property, and that an agreement such as the one signed generates a «stronger patent environment«. In addition, he has highlighted that the agreement is proof that intellectual property must be respected and protected.
The company also recalls that, over the past 20 years, Huawei has been one of the companies that has contributed greatly to the development of ICT standards. Among them, the codecs for mobile communications, WiFi networks and multimedia.
