Context:
- Acer’s presently biggest dispute is with Nokia (February 15, 2026 ip fray article). Ericsson is enforcing patents against Transsion (January 30, 2026 ip fray article).
- Acer sent threat letters to telecommunications carriers over their equipment, which was primarily seen as part of the wider dispute with Nokia (September 6, 2025 ip fray article). Last month it filed patent infringement complaint in the Eastern District of Texas against AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon (January 12, 2026 ip fray article).
What’s new: Yesterday, Ericsson filed a declaratory judgment (DJ) complaint (see further below) against Acer with the United States District Court for the District of Delaware. Ericsson is seeking delarations of non-infringement with respect to half a dozen 4G LTE-A and 5G patents held by Acer as well as a declaration that Acer has breached its duty to negotiate with Ericsson in good faith, and damages or potentially an injunction (“equitable relief”) as a result of that.
Direct impact: For now, no assertions of Ericsson patents against Acer are known.
Ericsson’s complaint notes the connection between Acer’s Texas lawsuit against the mobile network operators and its dispute with Nokia. But the problem is that Acer’s complaint does not specifically accuse Nokia products: it generally refers to “base transceiver station equipment” and that terminology includes network infrastructure products sold to them by Ericsson as well.
The complaint furthermore says that “Acer’s letters made clear that Acer intended to take action against Ericsson’s base station equipment, creating an imminent threat of a patent infringement suit by Acer against Ericsson.” At least two meetings between Ericsson and Acer took place, but no solution was found to shield Ericsson’s customers from Acer’s lawsuits.
This is the DJ complaint, followed by a patent list:
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Counsel
Ericsson is being represented by McKool Smith’s Nicholas Mathews and Erik Fountain, and local Delaware firm Richards, Layton & Finger’s Kelly E. Farnan.