ZTE, Ericsson agree to withdraw lawsuits

ZTE Corp, China's second-largest maker of phone equipment, said it and Ericsson agreed to withdraw patent lawsuits against each other. The companies are waiting for court approval to end the suits, ZTE said in a statement to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on Thursday. ZTE also denied that it was ordered to pay ¤500 million (Dh2.3 billion) to Ericsson and was banned from entering the European market, according to the statement. After "extensive discussion and consultation," the companies "have agreed to withdraw all patent infringement litigations against each other," ZTE said in the statement. This includes "the patent infringement lawsuits filed by Ericsson against ZTE in the UK, Germany and Italy, as well as the patent infringement lawsuit filed by ZTE against Ericsson" in China. The Shenzhen-based company fell 1.4 per cent to HK$21.75 in Hong Kong after declining as much as 3.6 per cent. The shares on Thursday had posted their biggest decline in five months, prompting the company to issue a statement that it was "not aware of any reason" for "recent decreases in the price and increases in the trading volume." Ericsson, the world's largest maker of wireless phone networks, said in April that it filed lawsuits against ZTE in the UK, Germany and Italy, in connection with alleged infringement of several handset and network technology patents. Fredrik Hallstan, a spokesman for Stockholm-based Ericsson, had no immediate comment on the ZTE statement. ZTE smartphone sales may double this year as they gain market share in Europe, North America, Brazil and Japan, the company said recently. That expansion in handsets may damp profits as the company subsidises purchases of the devices, said Bill Fan, an analyst at Guosen Securities Company in Hong Kong, which rates the shares "buy."