Nokia against Qualcomm in European courts

Nokia addresses a request to European courts to declare Qualcomm Inc.’s patents in Europe finished thus giving Nokia the possibility to sell handsets in Europe having chips by Texas Instruments Inc. otherwise Nokia would be obliged to pay royalties to Qualcomm.

Nokia presented a patent portfolio license between Qualcomm and TI, made in 2000, to two European courts, one in Mannheim, Germany, the other in the Hague District Court in The Netherlands. The matter is based on the possible failure of Nokia and Qualcomm to obtain a new cross-licensing agreement; as the current one expires on April 10. The problem of giving progress on the issue consists in the fact that there is too much secrecy surrounding this matter and conflicts between two companies approaching the April 10 deadline to renew an agreement.

Nokia made a statement today saying that it has invested nearly $40 billion in research and development for creating GSM and W-CDMA technologies in 11,000 patent families, a reflection of its arguments in dealing with Qualcomm on cross-licensing—that is, that the phone maker’s R&D investments and number of patents should count more heavily in a new agreement than Qualcomm is willing to recognize.  Qualcomm did not react to Nokia’s arguments.

However, chip company based in San Diego-based announced that the two companies came to an agreement to dismiss without prejudice all remaining patent-related claims initiated by Qualcomm in San Diego District Court and Broadcom’s counter-claims in those cases.
Nevertheless, these companies still have some lawsuits and complaints between them such as a patent infringement case before the United States International Trade Commission with a public hearing set for Wednesday and Thursday, a U.S. District Court case over patent infringement allegations scheduled for trial in May, a U.S. District Court ruling on video compression and standards abuse over six patents, and a U.S. District Court of Appeals antitrust claim.

Wall Street apparently likes companies that take tangible steps to avoid impediments to conducting business. Shares in Nokia, Qualcomm and Broadcom all rose slightly on the news announcements.