Nokia seeks to even scores with Qualcomm

HANDSET GIANT, Nokia, has decided to take chip maker Qualcomm on at its own game. It has filed patent counter assertions against Qualcomm for its infringement of six Nokia implementation patents".

Nokia's CFO, said Rick Simonson, explained that the company has decided to fight fire with fire. "Over the past 19 months Qualcomm has filed 11 patent litigation cases against Nokia seeking damages and injunctions.

Nokia has now filed its first counter action to address Qualcomm's unauthorised use of Nokia technology." Just to show it has learnt the rules, Nokia is now referring to its "extensive IPR portfolio."

This move could be a dangerous one for Qualcomm because Nokia is seeking an injunction against Qualcomm's infringing chipsets. Nokia could benefit from whatever the USA's International Trade Commission (ITC) decides in a similar case brought by Broadcom.

The ITC has already decided that Broadcom's patents were infringed. What it has to do today (Friday 25th May) is to decide on a penalty.

One of the possibilities is a total ban on imports of handsets containing Quaclomm's chipsets. Which means virtually every handset compatible with networks operated by the likes of Sprint Nextel, Verizon and Alltel.

Their rivals - AT&T and T-Mobile (Deutsche Telekom) - have urged the ITC to avoid a compromise solution which could hit 3G handsets which use the W-CDMA standard.

MIT has estimated that around 40 million Qualcomm-based mobile phones will be sold in 2007 and are worth some $10 billion in sales.

Nokia's willingness to face down Qualcomm arises from demands that it should pay a royalty of 4.5 per cent of the value of a handset which would mean it was turning over something like $1 billion a year to the chip maker. µ

See Also
Nokia counter-attacks Qualcomm in EU courts
Qualcomm chips face US ban