Qualcomm and Nokia Continue Patent Wars
June 13th, 2006Qualcomm and Nokia are still at it. This time, Qualcomm filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) alleging that Nokia has infringed on six Qualcomm patents.
Qualcomm is asking the ITC to start an investigation into Nokia’s phone imports and ultimately issue an order barring the importation of certain Nokia handsets and other products. The CDMA pioneer also seeks a cease and desist order to bar further sales of allegedly infringing Nokia products that have already been imported and to halt the “marketing, advertising, demonstration, warehousing of inventory for distribution and use of such imported products†in the United States. The accused products include handsets for use in GSM/GPRS/EDGE networks.
Qualcomm says it expects an ITC investigation will start in July and that the case will be tried in the first half of next year.
The animosity between the two companies dates back years. But more recently, Qualcomm in November filed suit against Nokia in federal court in San Diego for infringement of 11 of Qualcomm’s patents and one patent owned by SnapTrack.
In May, Qualcomm also sued Nokia for patent infringement in the United Kingdom. That lawsuit alleges that Nokia’s sales of products that are capable of operating in accordance with the GPRS and/or EDGE standards infringe two of Qualcomm’s patents in the United Kingdom.
Both companies say they have tried to negotiate license agreements that are fair and reasonable but, so far, they haven’t reached an agreement. An existing license agreement between the two companies is set to expire on April 9, 2007.
Nokia today issued a statement saying it is evaluating the latest Qualcomm filing and “will respond as necessary.â€
Nokia points out that the ITC request is the third legal action taken by Qualcomm against Nokia in the past eight months. “These repetitive legal actions, over GSM technologies that have been in the market for many years, reflect Qualcomm’s concern over the current 3G UMTS patent negotiations,†said Nokia’s statement, noting that conditions related to license negotiations have changed substantially since the early 1990s, when Qualcomm held a dominant patent position in the IS-95 standard.
Nokia, along with Broadcom, Ericsson, NEC, Panasonic Mobile Communications and Texas Instruments, filed a complaint with the European Commission last year alleging that Qualcomm violated antitrust laws and made deals to keep competitors from entering the European 3G chip market.
