Nokia files ITC complaint seeking Qualcomm chipset ban
By Colleen Taylor, Contributing Editor -- EDN, August 17, 2007
Adding to communications chip company Qualcomm Inc.'s legal woes, Nokia Corp. today announced it has filed a complaint with the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) alleging that Qualcomm has engaged in unfair trade practices through allegedly infringing five Nokia patents in its CDMA and WCDMA/GSM chipsets.
Nokia said it is requesting that the ITC initiate an investigation and issue an exclusion order to bar importation to the United States of infringing Qualcomm chipsets, and products such as handsets, containing the infringing chipsets.
If enacted, the requested order would be the second such ban on the importation of Qualcomm chips that allegedly infringe patents held by a rival company. Currently, the ITC is on track to implement an widely impacting ban on the importation of a number of Qualcomm chips that have been found to infringe a patent owned by rivaling communications technology company Broadcom Corp., after the Bush administration announced earlier this month that it would not provide Qualcomm with the requested veto of the ITC's order.
In its current complaint, Nokia claims that Qualcomm's unfair trade practices include "importing products, selling products for importation, and/or selling products after importation, and inducing others to import products such as handsets, that infringe Nokia patented technology in certain Qualcomm GSM/WCDMA and CDMA2000 chipsets." Nokia said that the patents in question relate to technologies that improve the performance and efficiency of wireless communication devices, as well as allowing lower manufacturing costs, smaller product size and increased battery life.
"There is significant evidence to warrant an ITC investigation into Qualcomm's business conduct," Rick Simonson, Nokia's CFO, said in a statement. Reps for Qualcomm could not be reached for immediate comment on Nokia's charges.
This is not the first time Nokia and Qualcomm have sparred in recent months over patent rights. In June, Nokia filed a countersuit against Qualcomm in the eastern district of Texas pertaining to Qualcomm's alleged unauthorized use of six Nokia implementation patents in its MediaFLO and BREW businesses. That suit was in response to the Qualcomm lawsuit filed, also in the eastern district of Texas, on April 2. In that lawsuit Qualcomm's three patents-in-suit allegedly involve certain types of mobile software download and execution environments. In May, Nokia filed a similar countersuit against Qualcomm in a Wisconsin court.
The companies have not always been at odds, however. For years, Nokia and Qualcomm worked together under a collaboration for 3G technology development, but in recent months the companies have sparred over the terms of their 3G deal as it came up for re-extension.
