Nokia Vs Qualcomm Patent Lawsuit

Qualcomm Vs Nokia fight for royalties is watched or analyzed very carefully in the industry. What are the key issues ?

The basic fight is about WCDMA royalties. Ericsson resolved it with Qualcomm in 1999. So, Ericsson does not have to pay much of it to Qualcomm. The next big player in WCDMA is Nokia.

Nokia has actively contributed to WCDMA standard. Nokia has a large portfolio of patents on WCDMA. So, why should Nokia pay royalties to Qualcomm for WCDMA ? Why does Nokia create fuzz now on royalties ? What has changed recently for Nokia to think differently ?

Here are my 2 cents on these important questions:

• Qualcomm started working on CDMA technology around 1987. They solved some fundamental open problems to make it commercially viable (such as soft handoff). This is fundamental to CDMA regardless of flavor i.e. 1xRTT or WCDMA.
• WCDMA was, initially, designed to avoid Qualcomm patents as much as they can. However, fundamental CDMA patents could not be avoided.
• Now, these fundamental CDMA patents are coming out of ¨patent protection¨as its 15 years have expired.
• In view of above, the key question is : Does Qualcomm still has a compelling case to receive royalty payment on WCDMA, as key CDMA patents have expired ?

This could have significant impact on Qualcomm royalty income.