Nokia counter-attacks Qualcomm in EU courts

TRYING A new tack in its long-running dispute with Qualcomm, Nokia has gone to court in Germany and the Netherlands to get Qualcomm's patents voided.

Its argument is that Qualcomm's patents are inside the TI chips used to build its mobile phones. However, Texas Instruments and Qualcomm are known to have entered into a so-called Patent Portfolio License in 2000.

So Nokia wants the courts to declare Qualcomm's patents "exhausted" in respect to products sold in the European Union (EU) market. Give that the Dutch court is in the Hague, Nokia is claiming the courts are well versed in EU patent matters.

Cryptically, Nokia also notes that it has plenty of its own patents in respect to W-CDMA, the technology adopted worldwide for 3G.

Co-Incidentally, it seems, Qualcomm and rival chip vendor, Broadcom, have announced that they are both dropping the court cases they have against each other in san Diego.

Before you get the impression that Broadcom and Qualcomm have shaken hands and made up, Broadcom points out that it is still fighting on in no fewer than three other courts.

These include: - Santa Ana; the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) in Washington, DC, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. The latter involves Broadcom's antitrust claim against Qualcomm.

So the lawyers needn't panic after all. µ