Samsung Electronics is seeking to ban imports and sales of certain Ericsson products in the U.S., alleging that they infringe its patents. The move follows a similar one by Ericsson to ban some Samsung products there.
The world's largest smartphone maker filed its complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission on Friday, arguing that the Swedish network equipment company has violated seven of its patents. The accused Ericsson products include telecommunications network equipment such as base stations.
The key technologies at issue are related to electronic devices for wireless communications and data transfer, including radio frequency and LTE networks.
"We have sought to negotiate with Ericsson in good faith. However, Ericsson has proven unwilling to continue such negotiations by making unreasonable claims," Samsung said in a statement on Wednesday.
The ITC has not yet published the complaint from Samsung.
Earlier this month, Ericsson brought several patent infringement lawsuits against Samsung in the U.S., followed by a complaint with the Commission requesting a sales ban of Samsung devices including the Galaxy S III and the Galaxy Note.
In that case, Samsung failed to reach an agreement to license Ericsson's patents on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms after two years of negotiations. Samsung was asked to pay the same rate as its competitors, but refused, Ericsson said earlier.
Ericsson representatives could not be reached for comment at the time of writing.
Beyond the global expansion of its mobile devices, Samsung has been pushing for a mobile network business in Europe. In August, it made a deal with a U.K. operator Three to build an LTE radio access network and infrastructure solution.
The South Korean company is already involved in patent disputes with Apple in more than 10 countries.
