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ERICSSON

Sweden’s Ericsson sued for patent infringement

Swedish mobile network giant Ericsson is the target of a writ from Chinese telecom equipment supplier ZTE, alleging patent infringement and escalating a legal dispute between the two rivals.

ZTE launched legal action on Monday against Ericsson (China) Communications

Co. Ltd for allegedly breaching its Chinese patents on a range of products involving “core networks, GSM infrastructure and 4G infrastructure”.

“ZTE has asked that Ericsson discontinue any act of infringement and bear legal liability in accordance with the provision of relevant laws,” ZTE said in a statement.

“ZTE is fully committed to developing its own patent technology and respects reasonable patent requests from other vendors.”

Ericsson has filed three lawsuits in Europe against ZTE for infringing the Swedish company’s patents on mobile phones and infrastructure, an Ericsson spokesperson said earlier this month.

ZTE and Chinese rival Huawei have in recent years been pushing into overseas markets, eating into the market share of leading Western companies.

Ericsson, headquartered in Stockholm, has some 17,848 employees in Sweden and 90,000 worldwide.

It is the market leader in mobile network equipment ahead of Finnish-German giant Nokia Siemens, French-based telecom equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent and China’s Huawei.

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SWEDEN AND UKRAINE

Ericsson suspends all Russia operations indefinitely

Swedish network equipment maker Ericsson said Monday that it was suspending all of its Russian operations over the war in Ukraine for the foreseeable future.

Ericsson suspends all Russia operations indefinitely

The telecom giant already announced in late February that it would stop all deliveries to Russia following Moscow’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine.

“In the light of recent events and of European Union sanctions, the company will now suspend its affected business with customers in Russia indefinitely,” Ericsson said in a statement.

The company added that it was “engaging with customers and partners regarding the indefinite suspension of the affected business.”

“The priority is to focus on the safety and well-being of Ericsson employees in Russia and they will be placed on paid leave,” it said.

READ ALSO: How has Sweden responded to Putin’s war in Ukraine so far?

Hundreds of Western firms ranging from Ikea to Coca-Cola, Goldman Sachs and McDonald’s have stopped operations in the country since the invasion, with French banking group Societe Generale announcing Monday it was selling its stake in Russia’s Rosbank.

Ericsson has around 600 employees in Russia, and is a “major supplier to the largest operator MTS and the fourth largest operator Tele2,” a company spokeswoman told AFP, adding that together with Ukraine, Russia accounts for less than two percent of revenue.

As a result, the equipment maker said it would record a provision for 900 million Swedish kronor ($95 million, 87 million euros) for the first quarter of 2022 for “impairment of assets and other exceptional costs,” though no staff redundancy costs were included.
Ericsson is due to publish its first quarter earnings on April 14.

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