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Considered as a classic case of brinkmanship, the legal scuffle between wireless chipmaker Qualcomm (News - Alert) and mobile communications company Nokia has intensified once again. This time Nokia filed a claim that they already paid, in full, some of its licenses from Qualcomm in Europe. The drama is expected to reach its climax on April 9th, the expiration of the technology sharing license between the two parties.
In a press release, ABI Research (News - Alert) wireless research director Stuart Carlaw said, "This situation is reminiscent of the immovable object versus the unstoppable force: there has been too much posturing for either party to back down now. It will be one of two things that will break this deadlock: a court ruling, or ongoing damage to stock prices.”
Analysts at ABI Research, a leading research firm focused on telecoms industry, believe there will be no amicable settlement without outside influence between these companies. The primary reason is the intrinsic difference between their business perspectives – Nokia (News - Alert) favors quantity while Qualcomm quality.
Nokia believes its numerous patent activities recently must be rewarded with lower royalty fees. The company has invested billions of dollars to improve its patent position concerning WCDMA , allowing them to own more patents than the previous negotiated agreements.
Conversely, Qualcomm perceives the value of its WCDMA IP as very important compared to number of its patents. ABI Research also finds that this wireless chipmaker owns the most frequently cited patents for the WCDMA, a true measure of patent portfolio quality.
"Even if Nokia wins this battle, the average cumulative royalty rate for WCDMA multi-mode terminals will not be decreased a great deal, due to the need to support GSM and its royalty structure. At best there will be a 1% difference by 2011, with a cumulative rate likely to be around 7.4%," continued Carlaw.
Leo Blanco is a contributing writer for TMCnet. To see more of his articles, please visit his columnist page. Internet Protocol (IP) | X | | IP stands for Internet Protocol, a data-networking protocol developed throughout the 1980s. It is the established standard protocol for transmitting and receiving data
in packets over the Internet. I...more |
Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) | X | | The following is an introduction to Wideband Code Division Multiple Access.
WCDMA is one of the 3G wireless technologies....more |
Global Standard for Mobile (GSM) | X | | ...more |
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