Ericsson sues Transsion with Taylor Wessing and Kather Augenstein

Ericsson filed seven cases with the UPC, including actions before the local divisions in The Hague and Mannheim as well as the central division. The patent holder has also sued Transsion in Brazil, India and Nigeria.

The unusual choice of Nigeria likely stems from Transsion’s strong presence in Africa, where it is a market leader in mobile phones. The Chinese company also produces gaming accessories, wi-fi routers and smartphone accessories such as headphones.

Transsion sells its products globally, with a presence in South America and Asia. Overall, it ranks among the world’s largest mobile phone manufacturers. Transsion sells most of its products under the Tecno brand and is one of China’s biggest mobile phone makers, though still some way behind Xiaomi. While Europe is not the company’s core market, it also sells its devices here.

Ericsson’s lawsuits against Transsion focus on the 4G and 5G portfolio and target the global handset business.

Transsion fights on multiple fronts

Transsion recently concluded a licensing deal with Nokia. According to JUVE Patent sources, Qualcomm also settled a lawsuit against Transsion over navigation receivers at the Munich Regional Court and before the UPC. In these proceedings, a team from Hogan Lovells as well as Krieger Mes represented Transsion and its subsidiary Tecno Mobile.

In August, several Access Advance pool members filed lawsuits against the Chinese company at the UPC. In the suits that NEC and Huawei have filed, Taylor Wessing spin-off Pentarc is defending Transsion. In the proceedings against Sun Patent and ETRI, Andreas Kramer of Powell Gilbert is representing the defendant.

According to JUVE Patent sources, Transsion has not yet appointed defence counsel in the new Ericsson action.

Core counsel for Ericsson

Ericsson is relying on its regular counsel in the lawsuit, with a combination of Taylor Wessing and Kather Augenstein.

At Taylor Wessing, Wim Maas and Tom Foster are leading. David Mulder and Yolandi Coetzee are coordinating counsel. Teams around Gisbert Hohagen, Jules Fabre, and Thomas Adocker represent in Germany, Paris and Vienna respectively.

The Mannheim team is led by Christoph Augenstein and Christopher Weber from Kather Augenstein in Düsseldorf.