Ericsson sues smartphone maker Wiko over patent infringement

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Swedish mobile infrastructure firm Ericsson is suing French-Chinese smartphone maker Wiko in two German regional courts over patent infringements, it said on Thursday. Ericsson said Wiko had infringed its rights for several years without any licence or compensation, despite negotiations since 2013. Wiko, which has its head office in France but is majority-owned by Chinese technology group Tinno Mobile, was not immediately available for comment. Ericsson said it was suing the company in the courts of Duesseldorf and Mannheim for infringement of patents essential for 2G, 3G and 4G cellular technology, as well as implementation patents. Ericsson, which is in a legal dispute with China's TCL over royalty rates, has had longstanding disputes with companies such as Apple and Samsung. These were settled in 2015 and 2014. Ericsson's intellectual property portfolio (IRP), which includes over 42,000 granted patents worldwide, covers 2G, 3G and 4G/LTE technologies and yields around 7 billion crowns ($867 million) annually. ($1 = 8.0779 Swedish crowns) (Reporting by Helena Soderpalm and Olof Swahnberg, editing by David Evans)