The year-long patent royalties battle between Apple and Swedish networking firm Ericsson has come to an end with the announcement of a patent licensing agreement between the two firms.
Ericsson didn’t identify the exact terms of the deal, but the company’s revenue from intellectual property in 2015 — including the new Apple deal — is expected to reach between 13 to 14 billion crowns, or $1.52 billion to $1.64 billion, Reuters reported. That’s an increase from 9.9 billion crowns last year.
Investment bank ABG Sundal Collier, estimated that the agreement will see Apple being charged 0.5 percent of the sales revenue from iPhones and iPads. That easily translates to hundreds of millions of dollars a year destined for Ericsson’s coffers.
The Swedish firm’s chief intellectual property officer, Kasim Alfalahi, told Reuters that the licenses covered 2G, 3G, and LTE cellular technology. “It means we can continue to work with Apple in areas such as 5G radio network and optimization of the network.”
The legal battle began in January, when Apple sued Ericsson, claiming the Swedish firm was charging excessive royalties on some of their LTE technology. Ericsson struck back by filing its own lawsuits, and also filing complains with the U.S. International Trade Commission. The Swede’s also filed a number of European patent licensing lawsuits against Apple.
