On December 17, 2024, the U.S. International Trade Commission (the “ITC”) issued a preliminary ruling that Ericsson's four asserted standard-essential patents are valid and infringed, and rejected Lenovo's defenses, thereby finding that Lenovo had violated Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930.

The four patents in question are: U.S. Patent No. 10,425,817 on “Subscription Hidden Identifier”; U.S. Patent No. 10,306,669 on “Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) Resource Allocation”; U.S. U.S. Patent No. 11,317,342 for “Transmission and Reception of Partial System Information” (no PTAB activity); and U.S. Patent No. 11,515,893 for “Offset Values for Quasi-Cyclic LDPC Codes” (no PTAB activity).

The two companies are currently engaged in patent litigation in South America, the United Kingdom, and North Carolina, U.S.A. On October 12, 2023, Ericsson filed a petition for a 337 investigation with the U.S. ITC, claiming that Lenovo exported, imported, and sold in the U.S. products in violation of Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930, and on November 15, 2024, the U.S. ITC's Administrative Law Judge Cameron Elliot issued a decision on Ericsson's patent application. Cameron Elliot issued an initial ruling on one of the three investigations initiated by Ericsson, finding that the claims of two of its non-standard-essential patents (non-SEPs) were invalid.2024 In early December, U.S. ITC Administrative Law Judge Mary Joan McNamara upheld Ericsson's citation of its patents on 5G NR (new radio) technology .

The U.S. ITC is a U.S. trade agency with quasi-judicial authority that focuses on allegations that imports are suspected of infringing U.S. intellectual property rights and thus constituting unfair competition, and takes appropriate responses where they are not contrary to the public interest.

To the extent not contrary to the public interest, this ruling will result in the ITC taking the relevant remedies: a limited exclusion order (LEO) prohibiting the importation of infringing articles by specified persons. Lenovo is expected to further request that the Commission (the political appointee at the top of the U.S. trade agency) review and vacate this preliminary ruling.