Qualcomm sues Nokia over GSM tech

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Date: November 7, 2005 7:07:39 PM EST
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Qualcomm sues Nokia over GSM tech
Reply-To: dewayne () warpspeed com

[Note:  This item comes from reader Brian Berg.  DLH]

Qualcomm sues Nokia over GSM tech

By Reuters
<http://news.com.com/Qualcomm+sues+Nokia+over+GSM+tech/ 
2100-1039_3-5936927.html>

Story last modified Mon Nov 07 05:10:00 PST 2005

Wireless technology company Qualcomm has filed a lawsuit against  
mobile giant Nokia, accusing it of infringing a dozen patents related  
to the world's most widespread cell phone standard.

Qualcomm said on Monday that it wants Nokia to stop selling or  
producing products in the United States designed for GSM mobile-phone  
networks and that it is demanding financial damages from the Finnish  
company.

The suit comes just days after Nokia, the world's No. 1 cell phone  
maker, and five other high technology companies complained to the  
European Commission about Qualcomm's market practices, accusing it of  
stifling competition in the third-generation mobile-phone chip market.

A Nokia spokeswoman said the company had no immediate comment on the  
Qualcomm lawsuit, which was filed Nov. 4 in San Diego Federal Court.

Qualcomm dominates the market for technology and chips for the CDMA  
technology it has invented. It said Nokia has used some of Qualcomm's  
CDMA (code division multiple access) technology to improve GSM  
networks so that they, too, could achieve faster speeds for data  
services such as video calls and Internet downloads.

GSM, short for Global System for Mobile communication, has become the  
dominant mobile-phone standard, used in about two-thirds of the  
world's handsets. The CDMA standard is mostly used in the Americas  
and parts of Asia.
Qualcomm said Nokia is infringing its patents by making or selling  
products in the United States that comply with GSM standards.

It said the lawsuit affects 11 Qualcomm patents and one owned by its  
SnapTrack subsidiary.
Nokia and other companies, including Ericsson and Texas Instruments,  
complained to the European Commission late last month about Qualcomm.
They said Qualcomm offers preferential terms on royalties of  
technology patents to manufacturers who also bought its chipsets--the  
hardware inside a mobile phone--and thus stifles competition. The  
wireless-technology company rejected the accusations.

All mobile-phone chip and handset makers need Qualcomm's CDMA  
technology for the third-generation successor of GSM, which is called  
wideband CDMA and UMTS, short for Universal Mobile Telecommunications  
Service.

Nokia, Ericsson and others say they have contributed significantly to  
the WCDMA standard and also expect royalties, which may be hard if  
Qualcomm sticks to its licensing terms, which Nokia said are "not  
fair and reasonable".

Merrill Lynch analysts cut Qualcomm to "neutral" from "buy" after  
Nokia, Ericsson and others filed their complaint.

Nokia has a rocky relationship with Qualcomm. It struggled for years  
to get a market share in the CDMA market equal to its share in GSM by  
using its own CDMA-designed chips rather than Qualcomm's, but that  
effort has so far failed. Virtually all its rivals in the CDMA market  
use Qualcomm chips.

Weblog at: <http://weblog.warpspeed.com>


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