Ericsson celebrates cash boost from Oppo patent license deal

While the announcement didn’t detail the specific patents involved, you would expect them to concern radio in some way or other, and Ericsson did confirm that some of them involve 5G. Owners of standard-essential patents are entitled to be compensated for their commercial use, but negotiations over the amount can get sticky. When big deals like this get renewed, they’re essentially pure profit for the patent-holder.

“This important royalty bearing license agreement with Oppo allows Ericsson to further invest in fundamental communications technologies,” said Christina Petersson, Chief Intellectual Property Officer at Ericsson.

“The license confirms that the patent licensing industry works and is proof that a vast majority of license agreements are based on business negotiations. It also reflects the mutual respect for each other’s patent portfolio. We now look forward to growing Ericsson’s IPR revenues with additional 5G agreements and expansion into additional licensing areas, such as IoT and consumer electronics.”

The value of the deal wasn’t disclosed but at least we now know the provenance of the uptick in ‘other’ revenue announced by Ericsson last week (chart reproduced below). Ericsson felt the need to round off the announcement with the usual patent boilerplate material about how it’s only fair for companies to be compensated for their R&D investments and what a great contributor it is to mobile standards.