Chinese telecom equipment maker ZTE Corporation has signed an official settlement agreement with Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson in which the two parties have reportedly withdrawn all patent infringement lawsuits against each other.
According to the agreement, the two companies dropped all ongoing and pending patent infringement litigation against each other in Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy and China. In April 2011, Ericsson started lawsuits against ZTE in Germany, the UK, and Italy, accusing the Chinese company of infringing Ericsson's patents related to GSM and 3G/UMTS wireless technologies. ZTE also sued Ericsson for infringing its patent in China.
On January 20, 2012, Ericsson announced that it signed a global cross-licensing agreement with ZTE, and ZTE would gain the rights to use some patent sets of Ericsson.
ZTE said that as of the date of this announcement, it had received all lawsuit revocation notices issued by the local courts in these countries, marking the formal end of the dispute between ZTE and Ericsson.