A new front in the smartphone wars formally opened Tuesday as TCL Communication Technology Holdings Ltd. and Ericsson Inc. kicked off a bench trial over fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory (FRAND) licensing for 4G LTE technology.
Shenzhen, China-based TCL is asking U.S. District Judge James Selna of Santa Ana, California, to set a FRAND rate and award damages for Ericsson’s alleged breach of FRAND commitments. TCL, which markets Alcatel- and BlackBerry-branded phones in the United States, argues that Ericsson is discriminating among licensees by offering TCL less favorable terms than it extends to the likes of Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co.
