Nokia settles all litigation with Qualcomm over IP

By Mickey Alam Khan

July 24, 2008

Mind your business mobility

Handset manufacturer Nokia Corp. and chipmaker Qualcomm Inc. have settled all litigation between the two companies in a deal announced late yesterday, laying rest to a major tussle over technology standards.

The settlement has led to a 15-year agreement that grants Nokia a license under all Qualcomm patents for use in Nokia mobile devices and Nokia Siemens Networks infrastructure equipment.

"The terms of the new license agreement, including the financial and other value provided to Qualcomm, reflect our strong intellectual property position across many current and future generation technologies," said Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs in a statement.

"This agreement paves the way for enhanced opportunities between the companies in a number of areas," he said.

The agreement covers wireless standards including GSM, EDGE, CDMA, WCDMA, HSDPA, OFDM, WiMAX and LTE.

The deal seems tipped in San Diego-based Qualcomm's favor.

In addition to settling all litigation between the two companies, Espoo, Finland-based Nokia has agreed to withdraw its complaint against Qualcomm to the European Union.

Nokia has also consented not to use any of its patents directly against Qualcomm. This will allow Qualcomm to integrate Nokia technology into Qualcomm chipsets.

On the financial front, Nokia will pay an upfront fee and ongoing royalties to Qualcomm.

Nokia has agreed to pass ownership of a number of patents to Qualcomm, including those declared as essential to WCDMA, GSM and OFDMA.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

"We believe that this agreement is positive for the industry, enabling the market to benefit from innovation and new technologies," said Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo in a statement.

"The positive financial impact of this agreement is within Nokia's original expectations and fully reflects our leading intellectual property and market positions," he said.