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Earlier this month Ericsson said it aimed to monetize its huge stores of patents more aggressively, and it is already delivering on that pledge, settling IPR disputes with ZTE. The Swedish giant said it has settled lawsuits in Germany, Italy and the UK, filed against its Chinese rival last April, and the two companies have signed a global cross-licensing deal and dropped all litigation.

The lawsuits had related to GSM and UMTS technologies, areas in which Ericsson has a massive patent position. "Ericsson has the strongest patent portfolio in the industry with over 27,000 patents and any company which sells mobile devices or systems needs a licence from Ericsson. We have signed more than 90 patent agreements with different vendors worldwide. Now we can add ZTE to this group," said Kasim Alfalahi, who holds the new post of chief intellectual property officer, in a statement.

Having appointed Alfalahi earlier in January to turn the IPR mountain into a pile of gold, Ericsson is reshuffling other strategic positions to address changing markets more effectively. It has promoted Ulf Ewaldsson to be CTO, replacing the departing Håkan Eriksson. He is is currently head of the radio product area within the company's networks business, as well as a member of the research board. In his new post, he will be part of the executive leadership team and will also carry the titles of SVP and head of group function technology and portfolio management.

Unlike his predecessor, he will not also have the role of head of Ericsson Silicon Valley, and is unlikely to be based in the US, a surprising move given the intensifying focus on the north American market, where the purchase of many Nortel assets sent the Swedish vendor flying up the rankings. Along with Alcatel-Lucent, it has dominated early LTE contracts.

It is likely that Ericsson will now appoint a separate head of its growing Silicon Valley unit, which it says is particularly important to tap into the region's resources in computing and web technology, both increasingly overlapping with wireless activities. Ewaldsson is, in some respects, a backward step in terms of embracing broader platforms, since he is firmly a radio man, credited with some key - but traditional - Ericsson products such as its LTE RAN offerings, its multistandard RBS6000 base station and its AIR (antenna integrated radio).

Ewaldsson said he would maintain the company's R&D focus on wireless and IP. "Ericsson has the industry leading research organization with a strong focus in the wireless area and the IP and application domain as well as being the industry driver and leader in open standardization and industry forums. I look forward to join this team and lead its continuous success," he said in his statement. He is a 22-year veteran of Ericsson.

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