On October 12, Ericsson filed a lawsuit against Apple in the Federal Court of Texas, requesting the court to declare its 5G wireless patent license fees offered to Apple. This is yet another 5G patent fee lawsuit faced by mobile phone manufacturers.

Ericsson hopes to speed up the negotiations on the license of 5G technology with Apple, and filed a lawsuit on Monday, seeking to sentence Apple to fulfill its commitment to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) and prepare to trade under "fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory" (FRAND) guidelines. To put it bluntly, Ericsson wants Apple to pay the 5G patent fee.

Ericsson originally had a patent license with Apple. Ericsson began to license its wireless patents to Apple when it first released the iPhone in 2008. In 2015, Ericsson filed a complaint with the United States International Trade Commission again, demanding an injunction against the sale of Apple products sold in the United States market. Ericsson said that Apple products infringed 41 patents of the Ericsson company. Besides the basic patents of mobile communication devices, Apple also involved patents related to user interface, power saving and operating system. Later, the two parties reached a settlement, and Apple made a concession. Apple would pay Ericsson a royalty first and regular royalty payments thereafter.

Ericsson sued Apple again this time mainly because the seven-year agreement signed in 2015 is about to expire. So, in late 2020, Ericsson began to negotiate a new license agreement with Apple. However, Apple's response was ridiculous, as it argued that Ericsson's licensing rates violated the FRAND principle, and the only way to bring them into compliance with the FRAND principle was to "comply with Apple's self-declaration methodology".