Three firms must defend mobile phone suit - US judge

Ericsson, Qualcomm and Alcatel-Lucent SA lost a bid to dismiss a lawsuit by a Liberty Media unit that accused them of conspiring to exclude its positioning technology from being adopted in 4G mobile phones.

U.S. District Judge Robert Kelly in Philadelphia wrote that TruePosition Inc's "allegations of an illegal conspiracy between the corporate defendants are plausible when viewed in context and as a whole". TruePosition is a Liberty Media subsidiary that sells technology to assist carriers in locating mobile phones when someone calls the U.S. emergency number 911. The company accused Ericsson, Qualcomm and Alcatel-Lucent of hijacking the organizations that set global standards for what technologies would be included in LTE 4G networks.