Nokia counters with patent lawsuit against Qualcomm
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(InfoWorld) - Nokia and Qualcomm have entered a new round in their high-stakes fight over patent royalties, with the Finnish handset maker landing its first counter-punch. The Finnish company has responded to theÂ patent infringement lawsuit filed by QualcommÂ in the Western District of Wisconsin on April 2 by claiming that its products aren't infringing, and filing its first patent counter-suit against the U.S. chip company, Nokia said Thursday. Nokia's suit seeks damages and also an injunction against certain of Qualcomm's chip sets. "We're confident that our products don't infringe the two Qualcomm patents that are in suit and, in fact, we believe these patents are invalid," a Nokia spokeswoman said. The initial lawsuit filed by Qualcomm in Wisconsin concerns two patents covering speech encoders used in certain GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) mobile phones to digitize audio signals for transmission. In its counter-suit,Â Nokia accuses Qualcomm of infringingÂ six of its patents, relating primarily to multiband and multimode technologies that reduce handset and chip set size, cost, and power consumption. Standards bodies divide patents touching on the technologies they define into two categories: those essential to a standards-compliant product, and those that only cover a particular implementation of the standard. The six patents Nokia accuses Qualcomm of infringing are implementation patents, the spokeswoman said. Companies with essential patents included in a standard agree to license the technology under fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms, but the companies can decide whether or not to license implementation patents to others, she said. Qualcomm had no agreement to use the six Nokia implementation patents, she said. Qualcomm has copied these innovations and made them available to its chip set customers, according to the Nokia spokeswoman. In April, Qualcomm filed another lawsuit against Nokia in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. The separate lawsuit deals with three patents related to the downloading of applications and other digital content over GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) or EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution) networks, two technologies for speeding the transmission of packet data in GSM networks. The Nokia spokeswoman declined to comment on the Texas lawsuit. Over the past 19 months, Qualcomm has filed 11 patent litigation cases against Nokia but in none of these cases has the company had any success, according to the spokeswoman. Legal disputes over mobile phone patents have grown in recent years, largely because of opportunities to generate significant revenue from licensing inventions to others. Numerous patent licensing disputes have accompanied mobile phone technologies such as GSM and WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access), and are expected to flow from 4G (fourth-generation) systems now under development. In a interviewÂ earlier this month, Bill Davidson, senior vice president of investor relations and international marketing at Qualcomm, said the company has more than 1,000 essential patents for OFDM, OFDMA (OFDM Access) and MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) technologies, all of which form the foundation of new 4G technologies, whether WiMax, LTE (Long-Term Evolution) or UMB (Ultra Mobile Broadband). Â
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Mobile phone chip maker Qualcomm Inc  said on Tuesday it may appeal sanctions issued by a federal magistrate in California over discovery violations in a patent infringement case.
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Nokia (NOK1V.HE), the world&#39;s top  mobile phone maker, said on Thursday it has filed its first  patent counter-suit against Qualcomm , seeking damages  and an injunction against the U.S. company&#39;s chipsets.
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The U.S. International Trade Commission has denied Qualcomm Inc.'s  request to stay an order banning imports of new phone models with Qualcomm chips the trade agency said infringe a Broadcom Corp.  patent, Broadcom said on Friday.
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A U.S. court on Monday denied a Qualcomm Inc.  request for a preliminary injunction in a legal dispute with rival chip maker Broadcom Corp. , Broadcom said.
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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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(InfoWorld) - A German court stayed a patent-infringement case that Qualcomm filed against Nokia, as hearings regarding a similar case in the U.S. International Trade Commission suit continue. On Tuesday, the District Court of Dusseldorf, Germany, ordered a stay of proceedings until further notice based on a request by Qualcomm, Nokia said. A hearing in that case had been scheduled for Tuesday. Meanwhile, hearings for theÂ patent-infringement case that Qualcomm brought against NokiaÂ in the U.S. ITC started on Monday and will last until Sept. 24. At issue are patents Qualcomm owns related to power control used in EDGE (Enhanced Data GSM Environment) and GPRS (General Packet Radio Service). The initial ITC complaint included six Qualcomm patents, but Qualcomm later reduced the complaint to cover just three. Qualcomm initially declared one of the patents as essential to the standards, but later withdrew the essentiality declaration, according to Nokia. Qualcomm did identify the patent as one that may be essential, but after further investigation determined that it wasn't, said Alex Rogers, legal counsel for Qualcomm. But that issue is irrelevant to this case, he said, which charges Nokia with patent infringement. The hearings this week are dedicated to Qualcomm testimony and has included participation by Chuck Wheatley and Ana Weiland, former Qualcomm developers who worked on the patented technology, Rogers said. Nokia will also have five days to present its witnesses. The mobile giant will argue that it does not infringe on the patents and that the patents are invalid, it said. The judge will issue an initial determination after the hearings are complete. The commission then has an opportunity to accept or modify the judge's decision and issue a final determination. The U.S. ITC case is one ofÂ several ongoing suits between Qualcomm and Nokia. In August,Â Nokia asked the ITCÂ to launch a separate investigation, charging Qualcomm with patent infringement. In June, Nokia charged Qualcomm with infringing on patents in its MediaFlo and Brew products. In a statement in May, Nokia said that Qualcomm has filed 11 patent suits against Nokia in just over a year and a half. The ongoing dispute between the companies likely stems from their failure to renegotiate their patent licensing agreement that expired in April. Nokia has said that it believes Qualcomm, which is well-known for its development of the CDMA wireless technologies, charges more than fair and reasonable rates when licensing the technology to be used in standards-based equipment. In a separate intellectual-property battle, theÂ ITC recently banned the importÂ of mobile phones with certain Qualcomm chips, based on a case Broadcom filed.
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"This is another example where Qualcomm has effectively copied Nokia's innovations."  Nokia Corp., the world's largest mobile phone maker, said Monday it filed a patent infringement countersuit against Qualcomm in an ongoing multinational legal battle over wireless technology.Nokia, which filed the lawsuit in a Texas district court, is seeking damages and injunctive relief. The lawsuit deals with claims of unauthorized use of Nokia's Brew and MediaFlo patents, which allow fast, high-quality transfers of audio and video multimedia to wireless subscribers.In April, Qualcomm Inc., the world's No. 2 chipmaker for mobile phones which licenses its technology patents, filed a patent infringement lawsuit in Texas against Nokia, allegedly involving certain types of mobile software download and execution environments. Read more
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The world's top cellphone maker Nokia   said on Tuesday the U.S. International Trade  Commission has decided to start investigating Qualcomm Inc's   trade practices and alleged patent infringement.
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Last week, as we reported, Qualcomm's request for a stay of injunction against the sale of certain of its chips in the US was denied, and that denial was upheld by the International Trade Commission. This after the company was found to have infringed upon three Broadcom patents. At that time, Broadcom said it was open to seeking a negotiated settlement with Broadcom.
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Nokia, the world&#39;s largest mobile phone maker, took legal action earlier this week against two European manufacturers for allegedly infringing on technology patents and registered designs.
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Nokia and Qualcomm have entered a new round in their high-stakes fight over patent royalties.
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Nokia, the world's biggest mobile  phone maker, said the winner of a fight over patents on third  generation (3G) mobile telecoms technology would set the  conditions for all future wireless standards.
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(InfoWorld) - The U.S. International Trade Commission said that QualcommÂ is infringing on one of Broadcom's patents, dealing a blow to Qualcomm in anÂ ongoing patent battleÂ between the companies. The Commission hasn't yet issued a penalty for the infringement and Qualcomm pledged to appeal the decision. The companies are in the midst of many other lawsuits with each other regarding cell phone patents. Broadcom said the Commission could bar Qualcomm from importing its chips to the U.S., forbid Qualcomm from selling the infringing products in the U.S., and even ban the import of phones containing the chips. But Qualcomm says that the Administrative Law Judge, who made the initial ruling that was upheld by the Commission, has recommended against barring the import of phones that use the chips. The Commission made its ruling on Friday and both Qualcomm and Broadcom released statements on Monday. The Commission will issue its remedy decision by Feb. 9. Qualcomm has downplayed the importance of the technology in question, saying it is based on software and not fundamental to CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access), the mobile technology that Qualcomm created and is best known for. Qualcomm has said previously that it is exploring ways to work around the technology. The two companies have several other outstanding cases against each other. One is set to be tried in March, another in May, and a third doesn't yet have a trial date set. Broadcom is also appealing an antitrust suit that it filed against Qualcomm which has been dismissed. Broadcom is also one of five technology companies that filedÂ anticompetitive complaints against QualcommÂ with the European Commission. Â
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(InfoWorld) - The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) has voted to launch an investigation into patent infringement claims against Nokia, whichÂ filed its own complaintÂ with the commission in August. The complaint against Nokia comes from InterDigital, a vendor of wireless technology products based in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. InterDigital filed a complaint on Aug. 7 alleging that Nokia has infringed two of InterDigital's 3G (third-generation) wireless patents. InterDigitals' complaint accused Nokia of an unfair trade practice by importing 3G handsets into the U.S., and it asked the ITC to bar Nokia from importing products with the infringing technology. The ITC, in a news release Wednesday, said it has initiated an investigation into InterDigital's complaint. The commission will set a target date for completing the investigation within 45 days, the ITC said. "The ITC has not yet made any decision on the merits of the case," the commission said. Nokia, based in Finland, filed its ITC complaint Aug. 17, asking the commission to ban the import of Qualcomm chip sets that allegedly infringe on five Nokia patents. The commissionÂ banned some Qualcomm importsÂ in June, after complaints from Broadcom. A Nokia spokeswoman didn't immediately return a call seeking comment on the ITC investigation. The InterDigital patents involve algorithms for how 3G wireless signals most efficiently travel through the air, said Jack Indekeu, InterDigital's director of corporate marketing. The company has been talking with Nokia about the patent claims, he said. "We haven't moved forward," Indekeu said. "That's why we have to move in this direction." The InterDigital claims don't directly relate to the patent claims against Qualcomm, he added. "Companies that have spent the time and resources to invent technology are protecting their intellectual property," he said.
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Nokia Oyj , the world's top mobile phone maker, filed a patent counter-suit against Qualcomm Inc  in a Texas court seeking damages and an injunction against the U.S. chip maker.
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After a year-and-a-half legal battle, Texas Instruments has won the right to continue using Qualcomm&#39;s patented cell-phone technology without paying royalties.