QUALCOMM responds to Nokia's patent exhaustion case

(Business News & Technology News, 21 Mar 2007)

QUALCOMM Inc. has commented on reports that Nokia has filed complaints against QUALCOMM in Germany and the Netherlands. Although QUALCOMM has not seen the complaints, Nokia's press release alleges that QUALCOMM's patents are exhausted with regards to Nokia's products placed on the European market that contain chipsets supplied to Nokia by Texas Instruments. This allegation is entirely meritless. In a ruling in prior litigation between QUALCOMM and Texas Instruments, the Delaware Supreme Court wrote: "To protect its stream of royalties from the hand set manufacturers, QUALCOMM's licenses with integrated circuit manufacturers deny the licensees any so called 'pass through rights' that would otherwise relieve the hand set manufacturers of their obligation to pay CDMA royalties to QUALCOMM."

Not only are Nokia's accusations that QUALCOMM's patents are exhausted demonstrably false, they are inconsistent with positions Nokia itself has taken as evidenced by the very fact that Nokia has paid royalties for many years to QUALCOMM on CDMA2000 and WCDMA handsets that incorporate chipsets supplied by Texas Instruments. Nokia's latest contention is also contradicted by Texas Instruments which has publicly acknowledged that its agreement with QUALCOMM does not operate explicitly, impliedly and through patent exhaustion to license or exhaust any patents.

Nokia's actions in Germany and the Netherlands are merely the latest in a series of attempts by Nokia to avoid or delay a determination on the merits that Nokia's GSM/GPRS and EDGE subscriber products infringe QUALCOMM's patents. QUALCOMM has sued Nokia for patent infringement in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy and China, and in the U.S. International Trade Commission. Seeking to postpone a judgment of infringement against its GSM products, Nokia, in every one of these cases, has sought through legal maneuvering to delay the trial on the merits and avoid confronting QUALCOMM's infringement claims head on.

QUALCOMM will continue to aggressively prosecute its current infringement cases against Nokia to stop Nokia from infringing QUALCOMM's intellectual property rights (IPR) related to GSM/GPRS and EDGE. Nokia's continuing disregard for QUALCOMM's GSM-related IPR compels QUALCOMM to enforce its patents through litigation. Trials in QUALCOMM's patent infringement cases against Nokia in the United Kingdom and Germany are set for later this year.

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