Thursday, 24 July 2008

Nokia & Qualcomm Settle Litigation Suit

Nokia and Qualcomm have settled a nearly three-year licensing dispute, with Nokia withdrawing its complaint to the European Commission and both companies agreeing to a new deal that covers various standards including GSM, EDGE, CDMA, WCDMA, HSDPA, OFDM, WiMAX, LTE and other technologies.

Under the terms of the new 15-year agreement, Nokia has been granted a license under all Qualcomm’s patents for use in Nokia mobile devices and Nokia Siemens Networks infrastructure equipment.

“We believe that this agreement is positive for the industry, enabling the market to benefit from innovation and new technologies,” said Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, CEO of Nokia Corporation.

“The positive financial impact of this agreement is within Nokia’s original expectations and fully reflects our leading intellectual property and market positions.”

Further, Nokia has also agreed to not use any of its patents directly against Qualcomm, enabling Qualcomm to integrate Nokia’s technology into Qualcomm’s chipsets.

The financial structure of the settlement includes an up-front payment and on-going royalties payable to Qualcomm. Nokia has agreed to assign ownership of a number of patents to Qualcomm, including patents declared as essential to WCDMA, GSM and OFDMA.

The specific terms are confidential.

“I’m very pleased that we have come to this important agreement,” said Dr. Paul E. Jacobs, CEO of Qualcomm.

“The terms of the new license agreement, including the financial and other value provided to Qualcomm, reflect our strong intellectual property position across many current and future generation technologies. This agreement paves the way for enhanced opportunities between the companies in a number of areas.”