In a press release, the Swedish telecom equipment group said the multi-year agreement “includes a cross-license relating to patented cellular standard-essential technologies and grants certain other patent rights.”
It went on: “Furthermore, Ericsson and Apple have mutually agreed to strengthen their technology and business collaboration, including in technology, interoperability and standards development.”
The two tech giants first sued each other in 2015, accusing each other of a number of patent infringement and licensing disagreements relating to 2G, 3G, and 4G technologies.
While these initial lawsuits were resolved, the companies fell out again in 2021 over patent licensing related to 5G technology, with Ericsson going as far as to seek a ban on iPhone imports.
In its press release, Ericsson said the settlement ended “the lawsuits filed by both companies in several countries, including in the United States District Court of the Eastern District of Texas, as well as the complaints filed before the United States International Trade Commission (USITC).”
Christina Petersson, chief intellectual property officer at Ericsson, said: "We are pleased to settle the litigations with Apple with this agreement, which is of strategic importance to our 5G licensing program. This will allow both companies to continue to focus on bringing the best technology to the global market."