3G WCDMA License Agreement in China

Ericsson has concluded a worldwide patent license agreement with Huawei Technologies of China. Under the terms of the worldwide, royalty-bearing agreement, Ericsson has granted Huawei Technologies a non-exclusive, non-transferable license under Ericsson's patent portfolio for the WCDMA/UMTS mobile telephony standard. This allows Huawei Technologies to develop, manufacture and sell infrastructure as well as subscriber equipment using the leading mobile technology from Ericsson. In return, Huawei Technologies provides running royalty payments, as well as a reciprocal license to Ericsson.

The execution of yet another WCDMA patent license agreement confirms Ericsson's leadership with respect to its WCDMA patent portfolio in standards essential and implementation patents. Ericsson's intellectual property rights portfolio is exceptionally strong and is required by any company developing 3G products. Ericsson has the industry's strongest R&D commitment with well over 10,000 granted patents worldwide in the telecom field.

"This agreement further demonstrates Ericsson's commitment to fully support, and co-operate with local Chinese vendors in order to accelerate the development of 3G Mobile telephony and facilitate the market growth in China. This will create new opportunities for both the local Chinese industry and Ericsson, and further leverages on Ericsson's technology leadership and patent portfolio. Ericsson is promoting 3G in China and is showing the way to the rest of the industry by granting a license under terms to encourage competitive accumulated royalty rate for WCDMA," says Torbjorn Nilsson, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Strategic Business Development.