Chinese telecom supplier ZTE sues Ericsson

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Chinese telecom hardware company ZTE announced today that it is suing a division of Swedish giant Ericsson for patent infringement. The Chinese firm has formally begun legal action, citing intellectual property infringement in a number of areas, including "core networks, GSM infrastructure and 4G infrastructure".

This is the latest move in a series of legal disputes between the two manufacturers, who are increasingly finding themselves direct competitors as a result of mutual overseas expansion. According to a report made by Ericsson this month, the Sweedish company has itself filed three European lawsuits against ZTE for patent infringment on mobile phones and network infrastructure.

As part of the suit, ZTE has demanded that "Ericsson immediately cease production of the infringing technology, and that it bear legal liability in accordance with the provision of relevant laws". ZTE also said in a statement regarding the case "[we are] fully committed to developing our its own patent technology and respect reasonable patent requests from other vendors."