LONDON — Apple, no stranger to patent lawsuits, has another escalating fight on its hands.
On Friday, the Swedish telecom manufacturer Ericsson raised the stakes by suing Apple for reportedly infringing on 41 of its patents that are used in iPhones and iPads. Last month, the two companies sued each other over Apple’s use of a number of Ericsson patents related to wireless technology.
Apple claimed in a lawsuit filed in California that Ericsson was demanding excessive royalties, while the Swedish company said in a separate suit filed in Texas, where Ericsson has its United States headquarters, that Apple was continuing to use its patents after a license to use them expired in mid-January.
Ericsson on Friday said that it had filed two additional complaints, this time with the United States International Trade Commission, seeking to block Apple’s mobile devices from being imported into the United States until the patent issue had been resolved. Ericsson also filed separate lawsuits with the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas related to what Ericsson said was Apple’s misuse of its intellectual property.
“Ericsson’s technology and our engineers are behind these patents,” Gustav Brismark, head of the company’s patent strategy, said in an interview. “We’re asking for a fair payment from Apple for using our technology.”
Along with the potential ban on iPad and iPhone imports to the United States, Ericsson said it was also asking for payments for any potential damages caused by Apple’s using its patents without a license.
Apple said in last month’s filing of counterclaims that it respected other companies’ intellectual property, and that it would be willing to offer a fair price for the Ericsson patents. They include technology related to LTE, or Long Term Evolution, that is the latest high-speed wireless technology used for transmitting data between cellular networks and mobile devices.
“Unfortunately, we have not been able to agree with Ericsson on a fair rate for their patents,” Apple said last month.
The legal standoff is the latest in a long series of patent lawsuits involving wireless technology. The battles have often pitted Apple against Samsung, its main smartphone rival.
In 2013, the United States International Trade Commission ordered a ban on some older Apple products after the company was found to have violated a patent owned by Samsung related to data transmissions over cellular networks. But Apple appealed that ban, and the Obama administration eventually overturned the legal decision.