Friday, 25 May 2007

Nokia Makes Good on Threat, Countersues Qualcomm

Nokia was very upset and annoyed that Qualcomm spurned Nokia’s offer of USD 20 million payment claiming the amount does not cover the royalties it owes for the use of Qualcomm’s technology. This move by Qualcomm has made Nokia vow that it will take extreme measures to enforce the patents...

Nokia was very upset and annoyed that Qualcomm spurned Nokia’s offer of USD 20 million payment claiming the amount does not cover the royalties it owes for the use of Qualcomm’s technology. This move by Qualcomm has made Nokia vow that it will take extreme measures to enforce the patents it claims Qualcomm is using in its own mobile phones. This indeed has come true as Nokia has gone ahead and countersued Qualcomm.

"We're confident that our products don't infringe the two Qualcomm patents that are in suit and, in fact, we believe these patents are invalid," a Nokia spokeswoman said.

Nokia has said that it will order Qualcomm to stop using its own technology if a deal was not reached. On the other hand, Qualcomm retorted that it was possible that none of its current products relied on Nokia technology—though past products have. Nokia vehemently disagreed with the statement.

"If Qualcomm's products comply with industry standards, it is in the same position as any other supplier of mobile technology in that it needs access to Nokia's patents covering standardised technologies such as mobile packet data and speech compression," Nokia stated. "If Qualcomm intends to continue making industry compliant chipsets, then it will need access to Nokia's technology and patents."

The reason for the rift between the two companies is the cross-licensing agreement. Qualcomm and Nokia had first inked the licensing agreement back in the early 90s, and revised it in 2001. Under the terms of the agreement, the two companies allow each other to utilise bits of the other's existing technology in their own products for certain licensing fees.