The two companies had been negotiating Sendo's use of Ericsson's
GSM
(Global System for Mobile communications) and
GPRS
(General Packet Radio Service) patented
technologies – technologies that, according to the Financial Times,
must be used by manufacturers to comply with standards set by the
European Telecommunications Standards Institute
(
ETSI
).
However, the talks appear to have broken down.
"Basically, all we ask is that companies who use technology
invented by Ericsson compensate us for this, the same way we are
prepared to compensate others for our use of their technology,"
said Kasim Alfalahi, Vice President of Patent Licensing with
Ericsson. "We believe that Sendo is using Ericsson patented
technology, but they have so far not signed a license agreement
with Ericsson. Under these circumstances we have no choice but to
take Sendo to court."
UK
-based Sendo expressed shock at the filings and,
according to reports, has suggested that the suit may be in
response to complaints made by Sendo to European competition
authorities over the differing rates at which the patents were
licensed to mobile phone manufacturers.
"Ericsson and others are misusing the
ETSI
and its
licensing regime and, in fact, are operating under the cloak of a
cartel between Ericsson and others whose object is to limit
third-party competition," Sendo told the Financial Times.
Speaking to CNET News.com, Sendo's CEO Hugh Brogan added, "It's
not that we don't want to license the intellectual property but we
believe it should be fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory. We
thought we were doing things the responsible way."
