Context: The patent dispute between Ericsson and Lenovo started in the latter part of 2023. Cases were pending in the UK (where Ericsson had just appealed a ruling (March 31, 2025 ip fray article), the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, the United States International Trade Commission (USITC, or just ITC) (where both parties brought claims against each other), the Unified Patent Court (UPC) (in the UPC, Lenovo was trying to gain leverage over Ericsson), Brazil and Colombia. Ericsson obtained injunctions in Brazil and Colombia, and an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) of the ITC sided with Ericsson on four out of four patents that came to judgment (December 18, 2024 ip fray article). No remedy determination had been made yet in the ITC, but the Office of Unfair Import Investigations (OUII, commonly referred to as the “ITC Staff”), which participates in some ITC investigations as a neutral third party, deemed Ericsson in compliance with its FRAND license obligations and had doubts about Lenovo’s negotiating conduct (September 18, 2024 ip fray article).
What’s new: Lenovo just issued a press release according to which it has entered into a global patent cross-license agreement with Ericsson that settles all pending litigation worldwide. Some terms have apparently not been agreed upon yet, but will be resolved through binding arbitration.
Direct impact: In accounting terms, this is the second quarter of 2025 for Ericsson, unlike Nokia’s settlement with Amazon, which fell into place just before the end of the first quarter (March 31, 2025 ip fray article). This is the first-ever license agreement between Ericsson and Lenovo, though there was an agreement in place with Motorola Mobility, which subsequently became a Lenovo subsidiary.
Wider ramifications: Ericsson has recently renewed and concluded various major smartphone patent license agreements and can now focus on growth areas such as IoT (March 28, 2025 ip fray article). As a result of the settlement, the question of UK interim licenses will therefore not be appealed to the UK Supreme Court on this occasion. But there are still some other pending UK standard-essential patent (SEP) cases in which the question will presumably come up and could give rise to appeals to the top UK court.
By coincidence, two major SEP disputes have now been settled within only a few days of each other: Nokia v. Amazon and Ericsson v. Lenovo.
Like other major licensors, Ericsson concludes the vast majority of its patent license agreements without having to resort to litigation. The last major patent disputes that Ericsson settled were with Samsung (2021) and Apple (2023).
To be precise, a settlement where not all terms are set can also be called a “partial settlement,” which does not mean that any litigation per se remains pending. Here, the remainder is left for arbitration. It takes an agreement between parties to enter into arbitration. This also means they have to set certain parameters for the arbitration panel’s work, such as how to arrive at a determination of FRAND (fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory) licensing terms.