Qualcomm to ring up more CDMA royalties
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The merger between Sprint and Nextel is not only a boon for the two cell phone companies but also for San Diego wireless giant Qualcomm.
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Ongoing legal disputes over mobile phone patents between Nokia and Qualcomm are consuming much executive management time, generating substantial lawyer fees, and, if they escalate, could affect handset development and prices, experts warn.
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Shares fall as the company says it may end royalty estimates and count them only when received. NEW YORK  - Qualcomm Inc.
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Qualcomm announced yesterday that Siemens Communications, the world&#39;s fourth largest maker of cell phones, has agreed to use its chips in some of its handsets.
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U.S.-based wireless technology company Qualcomm said on Tuesday it expects &#36;50 handsets for faster third generation (3G) mobile phone networks to be on the market in two years' time.
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(InfoWorld) - Qualcomm is offering mobile phone makers a choice of technologies to tune into mobile TV services. In addition to its MediaFlo broadcast system, the U.S. manufacturer unveiled the development of two new chips supporting alternative technologies at last week'sÂ 3GSM World CongressÂ in Barcelona. Qualcomm is pushing its own MediaFlo system as an alternative to the DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting - Handheld) standard supported by Nokia and Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, or the Japanese ISDB-T (Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting - Terrestrial) system. But in Spain, it unveiled a "universal" chip that supports all three technologies. The company has also developed a new chip that supports Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS). This technology allows mobile phone network operators to offer streamed mobile TV services more efficiently by multicasting programs instead of having to establish point-to-point links for each device as they currently do. As a result, operators will be able to position their streaming services more competitively to meet future demands of mobile TV users during peak live TV broadcasts, such as sporting events and breaking news. "A big advantage of MBMS is that the technology will help operators better utilize their networks,' said Nitesh Patel, senior analyst with Strategy Analytics Ltd. But a drawback could be the lack of commitment by handset manufacturers to make phones, he added. A key focus of Qualcomm, however, is to establish its own MediaFlo as the technology of choice for operators entering the nascent market for mobile TV services, according to Andrew Gilbert, president of Qualcomm Europe. "Nokia and others are pushing hard for DVB-H to be the mobile TV standard in Europe but MediaFlo has some significant advantages," Gilbert said in an interview. The results of its trail with British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) indicate that MediaFlo would be able to cover either twice the geographical area per transmitter or deliver double the number of channels as DVB-H, according to Gilbert. And channel switching times are faster, he said. Under Qualcomm's patent licence policy technology, proprietary MediaFlo technology can be licensed for use in CDMA (Code Division Multiplex Access) and WCDMA (Wideband-CDMA) phones with no increase in the company's standard royalty rate for these handsets. MediaFlo technology will run on any spectrum that national regulators make available to mobile TV services, according to Gilbert. If regulators initially showed more support for DVB-H, "they are more neutral today" and willing to consider alternative technologies such as MediaFlo, he said. Gilbert ruled out the DMB (Digital Media Broadcasting) standard as a viable alternative, pointing to its limited bandwidth capability. Some analysts agree. "Of the mobile TV standards out there, DMB is the weakest primarily because of its limited bandwidth, which reduces the number of channels and picture quality," Patel said. Unlike MediaFlo and DVB-H, however, the DMB standard uses spectrum currently available in numerous European markets. As such, it is enjoying a head-start advantage in countries like Germany, which issued DMB licenses prior to the World Cup soccer tournament last year. The German regulator has yet to set a time-frame for DVB-H. Momentum for MediaFlo is growing: On Feb. 12, the biggest U.S. cellular company, AT&T's Cingular division, announcedÂ plans to launch a mobile TV serviceÂ using MediaFlo technology later this year. Verizon Wireless, the country's second-largest mobile operator by subscribers, has already committed to using MediaFlo, with plans to offer commercial service in March. Â
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Cell phone chip maker Qualcomm and  memory chip maker Spansion Inc. announced a partnership on  Tuesday to make cheaper sets of semiconductors that will help  reduce the cost of affordable phones for CDMA networks for  emerging markets by as much as 25 percent in 2007.
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Wireless giant Qualcomm (Quote, Chart) has inked a licensing deal with Microsoft (Quote, Chart) it claims will make it easier to play audio and video on its handsets.
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Wireless technology firm Qualcomm Inc.  said on Monday it will buy two micro-chip businesses to boost its expertise in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi wireless technology for mobile Internet access.
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Verizon Wireless said it would pay $3 billion in cash for the spectrum licenses owned by NextWave Telecom, a move that should expand coverage for new subscribers.
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Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM.O: Quote, Profile, Research) may change the way it recognizes royalties from its licensees, which would reduce fourth-quarter pre-tax income by $298 million, the company said on Friday.
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Verizon will pay as much as $200 million to avoid a possible patent-related ban on handsets using Qualcomm chips.
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InfoWorld - Ongoing legal disputes over mobile phone patents between Nokia and Qualcomm are consuming much executive management time, generating substantial lawyer fees, and, if they escalate, could affect handset development and prices, experts warn.
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Qualcomm Inc. , a maker of chips used in mobile phones, on Friday said it may change the way it recognizes royalties from licensees, which would reduce fourth-quarter pretax income by &#36;298 million.
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Qualcomm is making two acquisitions of Bluetooth and WLAN (wireless LAN) chip technologies, allowing it to further the integration of wireless networking capabilities in mobile phones.
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HTC plans to launch more than ten mobile phones and PDAs armed with Qualcomm chips by the end of this year.
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The hit on Qualcomm from a patent suit it lost to rival Broadcom may be slashed because of an unrelated ruling that came down in August.In May, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California found that&#160;Qualcomm infringed three Broadcom patents&#160;and awarded Broadcom $19.6 million. The judge in that case, James Selna, said he would double the damages to more than $39 million because the jury found the infringement was wilful. The damage award isn&#39;t final because other issues in the case are still pending.On Monday, Selna tentatively overturned the double award because of a new standard for proving wilful infringement, said Broadcom attorney David Rosmann. Broadcom can either accept the $19.6 million in direct damages or pursue a new trial in which it would try to prove Qualcomm acted deliberately, he said. Judge Selna ruled any new trial would look at the whole case over again, he said.Broadcom hasn&#39;t decided which path to take, but its priority in the case is getting an injunction to stop Qualcomm from making, using or selling the chips, Rosmann said.&quot;The issue of the injunction is far more important to Broadcom than the damages,&quot; Rosmann said. &quot;We&#39;re hoping to move forward on the injunction as quickly as possible.&quot;In August, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upped the ante for patent owners that want to earn higher damages -- they can be as much as tripled -- by proving someone knew they were infringing a patent and did so anyway, according to patent attorney Smith Brittingham of Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett &amp; Dunner.&quot;You have to show more comprehension of the situation than you would have had to in the past,&quot; Brittingham said. The Federal Circuit ruling, on a suit against hard-drive vendor Seagate Technology, automatically changed the standard in all federal courts, he said. The ruling could change other pending cases, he said.The new standard probably won&#39;t discourage patent suits among competitors like the Broadcom-Qualcomm dispute, but it may make litigation less attractive for patent-holding companies in the business of suing, Brittingham said.&quot;It&#39;s consistent with the view that ... maybe patent infringement cases have gotten too easy to win and have created an unnecessary drag on business,&quot; he said.Judge Selna asked Broadcom for a decision by the end of this week, Rosmann said. Qualcomm declined to comment on the substance of the case.The suit is one of several between Qualcomm and Broadcom, who are battling over the market for mobile-phone chips.