Qualcomm vs Nokia saga twists and turns

THE ONGOING legal struggles between chipmaker, Qualcomm, and the world's biggest handset vendor, Nokia, will pass a new threshold on April 9th - Easter Monday.

That's the date by which Nokia should have reached some kind of commercial and legal agreement with Qualcomm. Principally because it is the day the last agreement concluded in 2001 actively expires.

No-one seems to know what exactly will happen on April 10th. Will Nokia simply keep on paying at the old rate and wait for a settlement? Or will Qualcomm decide it has to sue for all of its money and stop Nokia's handset production?

The INQ had previously highlighted the inconsistencies between Qualcomm's courtroom arguments with Broadcom and the approach it is currently taking towards Nokia.

Now Qualcomm has responded by pointing out similar inconsistencies in Nokia's stance against Qualcomm in Europe and how it waged a legal battle against handset minnow, Vitelcom, in a Spanish court.

All parties seem to agree that if total IPR payments exceed five per cent - typically of the wholesale asking price per unit - then it becomes commercially unviable to build handsets.

The sticking point between Qualcomm and Nokia is over whose patents are really and truly 'essential' to produce a handset and what share of the 5 per cent cake individual patent holders should get.

The basic difference in approach between the two combatants are that Nokia's patents are essentially defensive.

European companies in general take out patents and say - copy our ideas too closely and we'll sue you.

By contrast, IPR orientated vendors like Qualcomm are saying - licence this software code/component and you can build a handset very easily, simply and cheaply.

It's hard to tell which side will triumph eventually. But expect the fighting to get very dirty indeed. It's definitely not a pistols at dawn and gentlemanly affair. µ

See also
Qualcomm may begin to rue its law suits