3 Asus Suits Allege AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon 5G Networks Infringe Its March 2021 Patent

AT&T's, T-Mobile's and Verizon's 4G and 5G networks infringe a March 2021 patent (10,951,359) on an invention “for providing control resource set configuration” in a wireless communication network, alleged patent owner Asus Technology Licensing in three nearly identical, consecutively numbered complaints Thursday (dockets 2:23-cv-00486, 2:23-cv-00487 and 2:23-cv-00488) in U.S. District Court for Eastern Texas in Marshall. Asus complies with the intellectual property rights policy of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute to license 4G- and 5G-essential patents on fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory (FRAND) terms, said the three complaints. ETSI is also one of several standards-setting organizations that are “organization partners” of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project, 3GPP, which “maintains and develops globally applicable technical specifications,” including for 4G and 5G wireless communication technologies, Asus said. ETSI developed and promulgated an IPR policy that’s intended “to strike a balance between the need for open standards on the one hand, and the rights of IPR owners on the other hand,” Asus said. In “an abundance of caution” and to ensure Asus’ compliance with ETSI's IPR policy, Asus informed each of the three carriers it was prepared to grant them an "irrevocable license" to the ‘359 patent on FRAND terms, said the complaints. Asus gave the carriers multiple opportunities to license the ‘357 patent, but the carriers haven’t “reciprocated” those “good faith efforts to negotiate a FRAND license,” they said. The carriers didn't comment Friday.