Swedish mobile telecom company Ericsson on Monday announced that it has signed a patent license agreement with Apple [corporate websites], ending a nearly year-long patent dispute. The deal will last for seven years and includes [AP report] a cross-license that incorporates patents owned by both companies. The out of court settlement brings an end to a dispute that has been called the biggest legal battle [Reuters report] in mobile technology. The agreement was described as broad by Ericsson Chief Intellectual Property Officer Kasim Alfalahi [IP Dealmakers forum profile], as he explained that it will allow them to continue working with Apple in areas such as 5G radio network and optimization of the network. The specific terms of the deal have been kept confidential.

This settlement concerned merely one of a number of patent lawsuits to which Apple has been party. Earlier this month Samsung and Apple released a joint statement [JURIST report] with the US District Court for the Northern District of California saying that Samsung would pay Apple $548 million by December 14 for infringing Apple’s patents. In September the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that Apple should have received an injunction [JURIST report] barring Samsung from selling any devices that infringe on Apple’s patents. In August Germany’s highest appeal court affirmed [JURIST report] a 2013 decision by a lower court that invalidated a series of Apple smartphone patents. In 2014 the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit overturned an order requiring Apple to pay $368.2 million to VirnetX Holding Corp. in a patent dispute.