Can Nokia quash Qualcomm's lawsuit?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Friday, 25 May 2007 13:55

Your IT - Entertainment

Nokia has responded to Qualcomm’s latest patent infringement lawsuit with patent counter assertions of its own, but can Qualcomm win this time after losing 11 previous patent cases?

The world of mobile phone patents could well turn out as being as strange as the world of software patents, where companies end up paying each other huge sums of money for the right to have hardware perform certain actions, as currently happens today.

In April, Nokia paid US chipmaker Qualcomm the latest installment of patent royalty fees of US $20m, as Nokia has licensed disputed Qualcomm patents in the past.

But Nokia is tiring of the attempts by Qualcomm for ever more increases in the patent royalty tax, asserting the latest patent claims are simply invalid, and has fired back patent claims of its own, while also seeking an injection, as Qualcomm has done to Nokia many times.

Nokia’s patent claims against Qualcomm are for its “infringement of six Nokia implementation patents used in Qualcomm GSM/WCDMA and CDMA2000 chipsets”.

Nokia’s statement continues that: “These six patents are not essential for the practice of standards, however they provide substantial benefits when used. In its previous litigation filings Qualcomm has sought injunctions against Nokia. Therefore, Nokia is seeking damages and also an injunction against Qualcomm's infringing chipsets”.
 
"Over the past 19 months Qualcomm has filed 11 patent litigation cases against Nokia seeking damages and injunctions," said Rick Simonson, chief financial officer, Nokia. "Nokia has now filed its first counter action to address Qualcomm's unauthorized use of Nokia technology. We will continue to defend ourselves and exercise all rights according to our extensive IPR portfolio."

So, what's in Nokia's counter claim, and how might this whole shamozzle end up turning out? Please read onto page 2 for the conclusion...