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Nokia vs Qualcomm: Finn calls on court to act
'Make them obey... '

By Reuters

Published: Thursday 10 August 2006

Mobile phone maker Nokia has asked a US court to enforce Qualcomm's obligations in patent licensing, Nokia said on Wednesday.

It said in a statement: "Nokia is asking the court to order Qualcomm to abide by its written contractual obligations in international standards setting organisations to license intellectual property essential to GSM and UMTS technology standards on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms."

Nokia, the world's largest mobile phone maker, also said it is seeking a court order to affirm Qualcomm "is not entitled to injunctive relief in relation to alleged infringement of patents declared essential to a standard".

Nokia and Qualcomm have had a longstanding disagreement over essential patents relating to mobile phone technologies. The two companies are in negotiations about extending technology licence agreements.

Nokia said: "Qualcomm has filed three separate legal actions against Nokia in US Federal Court, a court in the United Kingdom and the US International Trade Commission where it has requested injunctions against Nokia."

Nokia also said it is asking the court in Delaware to enforce Qualcomm's obligation to negotiate royalties on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms.

In July, Qualcomm said the US International Trade Commission is investigating whether Nokia engaged in unfair trading practices by importing and selling mobile phones that infringed on Qualcomm's patents.

At the time, Nokia said the filing by Qualcomm was without merit.

Qualcomm is the dominant chip supplier for phones based on the CDMA standard, a wireless technology used mainly in the US and parts of Asia. It has said Nokia products infringe its patents for GSM, a mobile phone technology that is popular in Europe.

Nokia is one of six rivals that last year lodged an anti-competitiveness complaint with European regulators against Qualcomm's licensing practices.