Context: China’s Transsion, the world’s fourth-largest smartphone supplier, is embroiled in several global, high-profile cellular and video codec standard-essential patent (SEP) lawsuits. The most recent actions it is facing were filed by InterDigital in the Unified Patent Court (UPC), India, and Brazil over cellular SEPs and video coding patents (October 31, 2025 ip fray article). It is also the target of a slew of suits by Access Advance licensors NEC, JVC, Sun Patent Trust (July 17, 2025 ip fray article), Huawei (August 4, 2025 ip fray article), and Korea’s Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) (August 18, 2025 ip fray article) in the UPC and Brazil. Transsion has had some success, settling its disputes against Qualcomm (January 16, 2025 ip fray article) and Philips (July 16, 2025 ip fray article) earlier this year. Transsion also signed a patent license agreement with Nokia in January, without litigation (January 30, 2025 ip fray article).
What’s new: Ericsson has become the latest SEP holder to target Transsion in patent infringement litigation, suing the Chinese mobile phone maker over 4G and 5G-related SEPs in Brazil, India, Nigeria, and the Unified Patent Court (UPC) (November 14, 2025 Ericsson press release). The company has been in discussions with Transsion since August 2017, but the Chinese mobile phone maker allegedly continues to “reject Ericsson’s FRAND offers”, meaning Ericsson was “compelled to take legal action”. Transsion’s “perpetual delay tactics” impact the telecom innovation cycle, creating an anticompetitive environment in relation to its competitors who properly license Ericsson’s patented standard essential technology, Ericsson said today.
Direct impact: Transsion is Ericsson’s last remaining unlicensed top-ten smartphone supplier. Ericsson will likely be hoping that its actions today will help it reach the same endpoint as other SEP holders, such as Philips and Qualcomm, have.
Wider ramifications: This is the first time that a major SEP owner such as Ericsson has filed a publicly known patent infringement suit in Nigeria, making it a landmark move. But it doesn’t come as much of a surprise, given Transsion owns 63% of Nigeria’s smartphone market. Transsion started selling their Infinix line in Brazil in 2021 through a partnership with Positivo, which takes care of assembly and distribution. The courts in Brazil granted Ericsson injunctions in its suit against Lenovo, which played a great role in their ultimate settlement (April 3, 2025 ip fray article).
Ericsson has brought cases in the following courts;
- UPC:
- The Hague Local Division: FRAND case
- Mannheim Local Division: patent infringement case
- Central Division (Paris seat): patent infringement case
- Delhi High Court
- Rio de Janeiro State Court
- The Federal High Court of Nigeria, Lagos Judicial Division
Robert Earle, Ericsson’s Vice President, Patent Assertion and Enforcement (whom we interviewed earlier this year: July 3, 2025 ip fray article), said today that it is not unusual for NDA negotiations with equipment vendors to be concluded within weeks, but discussions with Transsion started as far back as August 2017, when Ericsson first sent Transsion a letter via DHL (November 14, 2025 LinkedIn post by Robert Earle). The letter also included Ericsson’s patent lists, he noted, and Transsion did not respond until October 2018.
Negotiations between the companies were then “delayed and drawn out”, he explained, due to Transsion’s “unreasonable demands, which fell outside standard commercial practice combined with periods of non-responsiveness, designed to delay or obstruct negotiations”. An NDA was finally executed in November 2021, but the companies failed to reach a global patent cross-license for a further four years.
“The lack of progress is caused by Transsion’s failure to negotiate in good faith,” Mr. Earle said today.
He also revealed some insights into what Ericsson has offered Transsion. The scope of the proposed licence would cover 4G and 5G standards-compliant user equipment and infrastructure equipment. The rates offered to Transsion were consistent with the royalty rates for 4G that had previously been adjudicated as FRAND-compliant by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, he noted, which were then affirmed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. They would also be in line with 5G royalty rates previously determined as FRAND-compliant by the United States International Trade Commission (ITC).
Mr. Earle added:
“The damage extends beyond Ericsson. It undermines fair competition and weakens the incentives that sustain innovation.”