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Ericsson said it has signed license agreements for LTE essential patents, claiming it is taking the lead in establishing an industry practice to promote healthy market growth of the technology and that it has the strongest LTE patent portfolio.

Back in April 2008, Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent, NEC, now defunct NextWave Wireless, Nokia, Nokia Siemens Networks and Sony Ericsson joined what they called a "mutual commitment to a framework for establishing predictable and more transparent maximum aggregate costs" for IPR relating to LTE. Basically, in pursuing bilateral agreements, the group agreed to support a reasonable maximum aggregate royalty level for LTE essential IPR in handsets as a single-digit percentage of the sales price. For notebooks, with embedded LTE capabilities, the companies support a single-digit dollar amount as the maximum aggregate royalty level.

While not revealing how many LTE licensing agreements it has signed, Ericsson said all of its LTE agreements will be made according to Ericsson's proportional share of the standard IPR that relates to the relevant product category. Ericsson likewise honors the same industry practice by ensuring a maximum cumulative rate on LTE technology not exceeding a single-digit rate.

"We aim to strike a balance between providing value for our customers and earning a fair return on our significant R&D investments when other parties have the opportunity to benefit from them," Kasim Alfalahi, Ericsson's vice president and head of IPR Licensing and Patent Portfolio, said in a statement.