Swedish telecommunications equipment maker Ericsson said Tuesday that it was suing South Korean rival Samsung in a U.S. court for violating patents.

“Ericsson has today filed a lawsuit in the United States against Samsung for infringing its patents, after nearly two years of negotiations failed to reach an agreement,” a statement said.

“The dispute concerns both Ericsson's patented technology that is essential to several telecommunications and networking standards used by Samsung's products as well as other of Ericsson's patented inventions that are frequently implemented in wireless and consumer electronics products,” it added.

Samsung has also gone to court in Britain, Japan, The Netherlands and the United States amid disputes with the U.S. computer giant Apple over technology used in mobile phones and tablet computers.

Samsung's positions have been backed up by courts in most of those cases.

With the use of smartphones in particular surging worldwide, courts are frequently being asked to rule to settle skirmishes in a long-running global patent war between the high-tech giants which have accused each other of stealing intellectual property. (AFP)