Ericsson and Huawei have renewed a multi-year global patent cross-licensing agreement that covers 3G, 4G and 5G cellular technologies.

The agreement covers the companies’ respective sales of network infrastructure and consumer devices, granting both parties global access to each other’s patented, standardised technologies.

“We are pleased to announce our renewal of our global cross-licensing agreement with Huawei,” said Christina Petersson, chief intellectual property officer at Ericsson. “Both companies are major contributors to mobile communication standards and recognise the value of each other’s intellectual property. This agreement demonstrates the commitment of both parties that intellectual property should be respected and rewarded, and that leading technological innovations should be shared across the industry. A balanced approach to licensing ensures that the interests of both patent holders and implementers are served fairly, driving healthy, sustainable industry development for the benefit of consumers and enterprises everywhere.”

The cross-licensing agreement covers patents essential to 3GPP, ITU, IEEE and IETF standards for 3G, 4G and 5G cellular technologies.

“We are delighted to reach a long-term global cross-licensing agreement with Ericsson,” said Alan Fan, head of Huawei’s intellectual property department. “As major contributors of standard essential patents (SEPs) for mobile communication, the companies recognise the value of each other’s intellectual property, and this agreement creates a stronger patent environment. It demonstrates the commitment both parties have forged that intellectual property should be properly respected and protected.”

Over the past 20 years, Huawei has been a major contributor to mainstream ICT standards, including those for cellular, wifi and multimedia codecs. In 2022, Huawei (www.huawei.com) topped the European Patent Office’s applicant ranking for number of patent applications filed, with 4505 applications.

“Our commitment to sharing leading technological innovations will drive healthy, sustainable industry development and provide consumers with more robust products and services,” said Fan.

With the current portfolio of IPR licensing contracts, Ericsson estimates the full-year 2023 IPR licensing revenues to be approximately SEK11bn.

Over several decades, Ericsson (www.ericsson.com) has been a contributor to 3GPP and to the development of global mobile standards. The value of Ericsson’s patent portfolio of more than 60,000 granted patents is strengthened by its position as a 5G vendor, and annual investments of more than $4bn in R&D. The company is confident of growing its IPR revenues with further agreements and by expanding into additional licensing areas long term.