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After success in Korea and Japan, Ericsson withdraws its complaint with the European Commission
(Hugin (English) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) has withdrawn its complaint to the European
Commission regarding Qualcomm's WCDMA (3G) licensing activities. The
company will, however, continue its ongoing dialogue with competition
authorities around the world in relation to Qualcomm's licensing
practices. Ericsson's goal remains the same: To ensure a robust,
enforceable and fair IPR regime for standards, particularly those
relating to 3G and 4G wireless technologies.
In October 2005, Ericsson, Nokia, Broadcom, Panasonic, NEC and Texas
Instruments filed coordinated complaints alleging that Qualcomm was
both violating antitrust laws and breaching its own commitments to
standard-setting bodies to license its declared essential patents on
fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms. In support of
these complaints, the companies have filed substantial economic
evidence that Qualcomm's conduct has caused mobile phone users to pay
billions of Euros in unnecessary costs.
"Ericsson has cooperated with the European Commission's four-year
investigation to ensure consumers in Europe do not pay higher prices
because of Qualcomm's unfair licensing practices" Ericsson's Vice
President and Head of General Counsel's Office Nina Macpherson said.
"Our goal remains the same: To prevent any patent owner from
distorting competition and extorting unreasonable, excessive
royalties that reflect neither patent value nor R&D investments in
the standards concerned."
In parallel with the investigation by the European Commission,
antitrust authorities in other jurisdictions initiated investigations
against Qualcomm. As a result, the Korean Fair Trade Commission
imposed orders concerning Qualcomm's restrictive practices and
imposed the highest fine in its history on Qualcomm. Furthermore, the
Japanese Fair Trade Commission ruled that Qualcomm has engaged in
licensing practices in breach of antitrust laws, and ordered Qualcomm
to cease and desist certain licensing practices, in particular, from
extracting inadequately remunerated licenses from its licensees.
Global open standards are greatly beneficial to consumers in that
they lead to lower prices, greater competition, interoperability and
the development of state-of-the-art technology. Such open standards
depend on commitments from all essential patent holders to license
their patents on FRAND terms.
Notes to editors:
Ericsson's standard multimedia content is available at the broadcast
room: www.ericsson.com/broadcast_room
Ericsson is the world's leading provider of technology and services
to telecom operators. Ericsson is the leader in 2G, 3G and 4G mobile
technologies, and provides support for networks with over 1 billion
subscribers and has a leading position in managed services. The
company's portfolio is comprised of mobile and fixed network
infrastructure, telecom services, software, broadband and multimedia
solutions for operators, enterprises and the media industry. The Sony
Ericsson and ST-Ericsson joint ventures provide consumers with
feature-rich personal mobile devices.
Ericsson is advancing its vision of "to be the prime driver in an
all-communicating world" through innovation, technology, and
sustainable business solutions. Working in 175 countries, more than
75,000 employees generated revenue of SEK 209 billion (USD 32.2
billion) in 2008. Founded in 1876 with the headquarters in Stockholm,
Sweden, Ericsson is listed on NASDAQ OMX Stockholm and NASDAQ New
York.
www.ericsson.com
www.twitter.com/ericssonpress
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT
Ericsson Corporate Public & Media Relations
Phone: +46 10 719 69 92
E-mail: press.relations@ericsson.com
This announcement was originally distributed by Hugin. The issuer is
solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
http://hugin.info/1061/R/1356793/329855.pdf
Copyright © Hugin AS 2009. All rights reserved.
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