Apple countersues Ericsson, seeks a US import ban on mobile base stations and proposes that both parties withdraw all patent infringement actions
The flurry of Ericsson-Apple filings with the United States International Trade Commission (USITC, or just ITC), a U.S. trade agency …
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the second round of the same fight. In 2015, when their LTE cross-license was being negotiated, Apple sued Ericsson first and Ericsson answered with an ITC complaint seeking to block iPhone imports plus a European suit demanding up to $725m per year. That round ended in a cross-license that has now expired without renewal, prompting Ericsson's 5G patent suits filed just yesterday.
Apple's response inverts the 2015 script: instead of defending against an import ban on iPhones, it asks the USITC to exclude Ericsson's mobile base stations from the US market — and simultaneously offers a clean exit, proposing both parties withdraw every infringement action. The counterattack is also a settlement offer.
First-order effects
- Ericsson now faces a USITC exclusion-order threat against the base stations it sells to US carriers, mirroring the iPhone-import pressure it applied to Apple in 2015.
- Apple's mutual-withdrawal proposal forces Ericsson to choose between litigating on two fronts (USITC plus district courts) or returning to the negotiating table almost immediately.
Second-order effects
- US carriers deploying Ericsson radio equipment become collateral parties to the dispute, giving them reason to press both vendors for certainty — the same dynamic the ITC route created for Apple's supply chain when Qualcomm sought an iPhone import halt in 2017.
- A renewed European front is plausible given 2015 precedent, where Ericsson took the fight abroad for leverage; each new forum raises the cost of holding out for either company.
Third-order effects
- The pattern across 2015, 2017, and now 2022 points to the ITC becoming the standard opening move in handset-versus-network-equipment royalty fights: expired cross-licenses get renegotiated under import-ban duress rather than in ordinary court litigation.
- If mutual-withdrawal-plus-relicense becomes the template, standard-essential-patent holders like Ericsson may find their bargaining power increasingly checked by customers who can threaten equipment exclusions in return.
The trend: Expired cross-licenses between handset makers and network-equipment vendors are triggering tit-for-tat USITC import-ban campaigns used as leverage to force renewed licensing deals.