Nokia Hopes To Nix Qualcomm Patents

Written by Adam Gosling

Tuesday, 20 March 2007

Nokia has applied to rid itself of responsibility for the Qualcomm patents covering the products it sells into Germany and The Netherlands. The bid to have the European courts look at the patent situation comes just weeks before the expiration of agreement licensing Nokia's use of the Qualcomm technology. Nokia hopes to argue that because Texas Instruments and Qualcomm have cross Patent Portfolio agreement reached in 2000, that Nokia's use of chipsets manufactured by Texas Instruments extends the patent coverage to the handset maker. Or that the technology royalties have already been 'paid for' by Texas Instruments via the cross patent agreement. Nokia says it has filed complaints against Qualcomm in the Regional Court of Mannheim (Germany) and in the Hague District Court (the Netherlands) because these courts are experienced at dealing with EU patent determinations. If Nokia can convince the courts it would be free to use Qualcomm's technology in Europe so long as Texas Instruments supplied it with chipsets. Qualcomm has responded before even seeing the complaints, saying that Nokia's suggestion that the patents are exhausted in the European market is "entirely meritless" and "demonstrably false". Qualcomm says that a ruling in Delaware denies any so called 'pass through rights' that would get Nokia off the hook on the CDMA patents and,. of course, royalties. Qualcomm also points out that Nokia has quite happily paid the royalties due to Qualcomm on Texas Instrument gear for many years without complaint. It also says that Texas Instruments "has publicly acknowledged that its agreement with Qualcomm does not operate explicitly, impliedly and through patent exhaustion to license or exhaust any patents". The decision is not up to Texas Instruments, Qualcomm or Nokia now. The suit is little more than an attempt to delay the two foes patent litigation covering not only parts of Europe, but the United States andCHina. "Seeking to postpone a judgment of infringement against its GSM products, Nokia, in every one of these cases, has sought through legal maneuvering to delay the trial on the merits and avoid confrontingQUALCOMM's infringement claims head on," said a Qualcomm statement. Trials in Qualcomm's patent infringement cases against Nokia in the United Kingdom and Germany are set for later this year. The two companies have been at each other's throats for quite some time now. A joint venture partnership between Nokia and Sanyo, which would have allowed Nokia to acces Qualcomm's patented technology indirectly, fell through last year leaving Nokia with little room to maneuveur in the long running negotiations over the post-April 9 licencing agreement. Perhaps Qualcomm's legal team knew to clear the decks in preparation for an extended overseas trip to the Hague. The company announced it had settled a slew of claim and counter claims between it and long-time foe Broadcom. Those two agreed to "dismiss without prejudice all patent-related claims and counterclaims, and to dismiss with prejudice all trade secret misappropriation claims asserted by either party in two lawsuits that were pending in San Diego Federal Court". That agreement came ust three days before the Nokia filing. www.qualcomm.com www.nokia.com Related news items ACCC Sets Interim Mobile Prices -18/02/2007 Newer news items Changing Fortunes For Smartphone Makers -03/07/2007 Motorola Conquers Everest -23/05/2007 New Motorola Phones Announced -15/05/2007 Microsoft Reports Record Profit -29/04/2007 Is A Palm Sale Imminent? -20/03/2007 Older news items Huawei CDMA Revenues Grow 30% -13/03/2007 Palm Shares A Roller Coaster -05/03/2007 Billion Phone Goal Missed By A RAZR Edge -05/03/2007 Nokia, RIM, Panasonic - In That Order -28/02/2007 Mobile Speakers For You Mobile Phone -25/02/2007 Tag This Now: