The trend for major mobile players to sign patent truces is gathering pace, as companies seek to starve the patent trolls of oxygen and avert future litigation. Stung by the rising activity of trolls, and by the destructive saga of the Apple-led smartphone IPR wars of recent years, the industry is engaged in a series of cross-licensing deals. Ericsson has several in place already – including with Google, Cisco and Samsung – and its most recent are also its most significant – with arch-rival Huawei and with Apple. Ericsson and Huawei have renewed and extended cross-licensing deals covering standards-essential patents (SEP) for GSM, UMTS and LTE. These are held by both firms and, though Ericsson is one of the biggest…