Apple Inc. is no alien to lawsuits and counter lawsuits. The most talked about lawsuit the company has been involved in is against Samsung. Time and again we hear that companies sue Apple for alleged infringement in the U.S.. However, this time Ericsson has beefed up its attempt to make Apple pay royalties by suing the company in Germany, the U.K, the Netherlands in addition to U.S. filings.

Kasim Alfalahi, Ericsson’s chief IP officer said, “Everybody needs to take a license for the technologies we are providing to them”. He further added, “It’s a very serious thing, regardless of who the company is.”

Apple Inc. had singed a licensing agreement with Ericsson and paid royalties for use of its intellectual property until the license expired in mid-January. Failed talks over renewal fees is likely the cause behind Ericsson now seeking court ruling in this matter.

When the news about this lawsuit broke Ericsson shared took a huge leap of 6.3 percent. The company ‘s market value has risen to $38 billion.

Apple in its complaint in January mentioned that Ericsson, “seeks to exploit its patents to take the value of these cutting-edge Apple innovations” and referred to their tactic as “abusive licensing practices.”

Legal battles aren’t new in tech industry and we will just have to wait and see how this one turns out. Many intellectual property activists have highlighted the need to reform patent litigation given the massive scale and implication of these lawsuits.

Apple Inc. (AAPL) has retail stores all over the world, most recently in China and is now looking to spread out to other parts of the world, the latest country being Sweden. The Cupertino company reportedly filed for a business registration certificate and even began hiring for the store. Apple’s products are already available if many countries, even those without any Apple owned retail stores.

According to site 99Mac, Apple’s latest store is expected to be located in the Täby Centrum shopping center in Stockholm and will likely be opened September 15th. The new retail store will certainly benefit from the expected iPhone 5 release date of September 21st.

According to further reports, this isn’t the only location that Apple is planning for Sweden and is in fact planning one in Malmö for October 25 as well as another location in Stockholm. Sweden is the 14th country to receive an Apple owned Retail Store, showing the company’s dominance in markets that it deems massively profitable. This is Apple’s first retail stores in Sweden and surely not the last in the European region.

{via MacRumors}

The strong demand in US for Apple’s iPad might have delayed its launch internationally but that sure didn’t keep hardcore Apple fans from buying one of the hottest selling devices. A recent report published on MacRumors quoted results reported by Yahoo! which highlighted some interesting information about iPad users.

During the measurement period, the iPad has only been available for purchase in the U.S. market; however, we observe approximately 10% of IP traffic coming from Europe and Asia Pacific. Specifically, the U.K., France, and Germany are the top countries in Europe, and Taiwan and Hong Kong make up the most traffic in Asia Pacific.

If you are not in US and have an iPad then there is some good news for you! Apple has launched international iPad App Stores ahead of its availability in UK, Australia, Canada, France, Japan, Italy, Germany, Spain and Switzerland. It has also has been reported that iPad App Store is now accessible even in countries where the launch has not been announced yet.

Earlier this month Apple confirmed that iPad will roll out in 9 more countries. The iPad will be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK on Friday, May 28.