It may be the holiday season, but that doesn't mean that the patent battles are going to stop. It's been revealed that Samsung Electronics has filed a complaint against Ericsson with the U.S. International Trade Commission and has asked for a sales ban on some Ericsson products. The filing was made last Friday and accuses Ericsson of violating seven patents. Samsung is seeking a ban on telecommunications networking devices, including base stations, it said in a statement sent to Reuters. The company went on to say that it has tried to negotiate with Ericsson, but that "Ericsson has proven unwilling to continue such negotiations by making unreasonable claims, which it is now trying to enforce in court."

Samsung's new ITC complaint comes in response to legal punches thrown by Ericsson over the past month, including both a patent infringement lawsuit and a request for an import ban on several Samsung products, including multiple smartphones and tablets. Samsung and Ericsson have actually come to patent licensing agreements in the past, but this time around Samsung argues that the licensing fees that Ericsson is seeking are "prohibitively higher" than what it's previously paid for the same patents. This latest ITC complaint has certainly escalated the battle beween Ericsson and Samsung, but it's possible that the two companies could work out some sort of new agreement rather than continuing this fight. For now, though, it appears that we've got another patent dispute to keep tabs on.

Via Reuters