WiLan Loses In Court

Wi-Lan has suffered defeat in its patents trial against Alcatel Lucent, Ericsson, HTC and Sony, as a Texas court decided that the firms did not infringe its patents.

Wi-Lan filed a lawsuit against Alcatel Lucent, Ericsson, HTC and Sony in 2010 claiming the firms infringed patents that relate to data transmission over wireless networks. However a Texas court ruled that the four firms did not infringe Wi-Lan’s patents and found one patent Wi-Lan asserted against HTC and two it asserted against Alcatel Lucent invalid.

Wi-Lan had asserted that Alcatel Lucent and Ericsson infringed three patents, none of which claims were upheld by the court. The firm also asserted that HTC and Sony infringed another patent, and there the court not only judged against infringement but invalidated the patent.

Alcatel Lucent and HTC both said that Wi-Lan was trying to stretch its patents to cover technology in their devices.

Sally Julien, a spokeswoman for HTC said, “HTC believes that Wi-Lan has exaggerated the scope of its patent in order to extract unwarranted licensing royalties from entities who have been focused on bringing innovation forward in their own products.”

Kurt Steinert, an Alcatel Lucent spokesman said, “We think this validates our belief that Wi-Lan was stretching the boundaries of its patents, and the jury confirmed that belief.”

Wi-Lan has managed to get several companies to license its technology including Dell and Panasonic, and in May it initiated legal proceedings against Blackberry over a patent relating to Long Term Evolution network technology. However in this case the firm did not prevail against two large telecom equipment companies and two big smartphone makers.

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Ericcson Transfers Patents

Ericsson has agreed to transfer 1,922 patents and 263 patent applications to Unwired Planet in exchange for a share in ongoing revenue that they will generate.

The transfer includes 753 U.S. patents related to 2G, 3G and LTE technologies, Unwired Planet said Thursday. Four months ago, the company owned just 200 U.S. and foreign patents, and around 75 pending patent applications.

“Our patent portfolio now extends to all layers of the telecom handset and infrastructure stack,” said Unwired Planet’s CEO Mike Mulica during a conference call. The patents cover application stores, location-based services, mobile search and mobile advertising as well as network protocols, antennas and many more topics, Mulica said.

The portfolio will continue to grow, as Ericsson has also committed to transfer a further 100 patents each year from 2014 through 2018.

Mulica said the company wants everyone who uses the patented technologies to pay a license fee. “We will use litigation when necessary,” he said.

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Ericsson Seeking To Cash In On Patents

As wireless access is added to new types of devices, Ericsson is reorganizing its licensing department in an attempt to generate more revenue from its patents, the company said on Thursday.

The Swedish telecommunication vendor’s CEO Hans Vestberg wants to keep close tabs on the latest developments, and as part of its reorganization Ericsson’s chief intellectual property officer Kasim Alfalahi will now report directly to Vestberg.

The company’s IPR portfolio includes 27,000 granted patents. Today, any vendor that wants to use cellular connectivity in its products needs a license from Ericsson, which is offered under so-called fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms.

Licensing patents under those terms should be fairly straightforward. But that isn’t always the case; in the Netherlands Samsung and Apple, as part of their global legal battle, are arguing in court over what fair and reasonable means.

Ericsson has largely stayed out of the telecom legal battles, but announced it had sued ZTE, which then counter-sued, in April last year. The case is still pending, according an Ericsson spokeswoman.

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