Did you catch the news about Apple and Ericsson finally becoming FRANDs 🙂

Both the companies have been involved in a year long game of tag, where they sued each other back and forth. And now, 3 lawsuits later, both the companies have settled their patent licensing dispute.

Interestingly, one of the lawsuits involved Apple accusing Ericsson of using “strong-arm tactics” to renew patents. 

But Ericsson has only been able to allegedly “strong-arm” Apple because of their solid position as patent declarants in communication technologies. There’s no running from communication patents. 

Moreover, there have been hundreds of telecom lawsuits across generations (pun intended) with 2G, 3G, 4G. 

And now this pattern is repeating in 5G with Nokia going on a suing spree, to Huawei (who have been the highest 5G SEP owners) introducing their royalty rates for the first time. 

Currently, the news is dominated only by leading telecom names, who are focusing a lot on IP licensing revenues. 

It is only a matter of time that other 5G SEP owners start coming out from the shadows and start enforcing their IP as well. 

If you wish to know which of these “other” hidden yet strong companies are topping the charts in 5G patent declarations, you can visit our 5G Declaration tool. 

Also, if you need any help to figure out which companies pose a threat to you or which patents are truly SEPs in a portfolio, get in touch with my team here!