Nokia strikes back in Qualcomm patent dispute

Nokia has fired back at Qualcomm in its ongoing CDMA licensing battle, filing a countersuit to the one Qualcomm filed in a Wisconsin federal court last month, and denying it has infringed on any of Qualcomm’s patents. Meanwhile Qualcomm has other distractions to deal with. Today a ruling is expected from the U.S. International Trade Commission in its long-running battle with competing chipset maker Broadcom.

In its counterclaims, Nokia said Qualcomm’s GSM/WCDMA and CDMA chipsets infringe on six non-essential patents owned by Nokia. Though not pore of the core radio standards for GSM and CDMA technologies, Nokia said the technologies the patents relate to provide substantial benefits, such as enabling roaming with multi-band multi-mode handsets and direct conversion processes that reduce the size, cost and power consumption of chips. Nokia said it developed those technologies for its own handset business and maintains that Qualcomm copied them without the Finnish vendor’s permission.

Qualcomm filed two <a href=http://telephonyonline.com/wireless/regulatory/qualcomm_nokia_patents_040407/index.html>patent infringement lawsuits on April 4</a> in Wisconsin and Texas, a week before the six-year-old cross-licensing agreement between the two expired. The two companies’ battles, however, have extended to courtrooms and regulatory boards on both sides of the Atlantic. Nokia though, claims this week’s lawsuit is the first counteraction against Qualcomm it has filed.

The International Trade Commission’s deadline for rendering its penalty on Qualcomm for infringement on Broadcom’s patents is today. Last year, the commission ruled in Broadcom’s favor, saying Qualcomm had infringed on a patent related to power conservation in high-performance phones. Broadcom has asked the commission to ban the import of all phones containing chips using that power conversion technology, an action that could cripple Qualcomm, its handset vendors and their carrier partners, all of whom are rapidly increasing their shipments and sales of 3G phones.