NEW YORK-Although Ericsson Inc. has filed a lawsuit against Qualcomm Inc. for alleged patent infringement, Ericsson said it believes the two manufacturers will work out their differences without the threat of litigation.
“We seek reasonable compensation for the use of our technology, and we’d rather do that through negotiation than litigation,” said Ericsson’s U.S. spokeswoman Kathy Egan from the company’s New York office.
Sweden-based Ericsson said it has been negotiating with San Diego-based Qualcomm for a year about eight essential U.S. patents held by Ericsson involving Code Division Multiple Access technology.
Qualcomm designs and manufactures CDMA infrastructure and terminal equipment, according to the specifications of Interim Standard 95.
In September, an Ericsson attorney filed a patent infringement lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Texas. That was a mistake, Ericsson said.
Qualcomm said the legal complaint “is without merit and [Qualcomm] will vigorously defend the action.”
The two companies then entered into a standstill agreement under which both agreed not to pursue litigation until they had completed negotiations about cross licensing CDMA technology. Ericsson’s claims center around patents involving the connection between the base station and the handsets, such as soft handoffs and encryption.
“We’re still hoping to resolve this,” Egan said. “Ericsson is not trying to block Qualcomm, but we want some form of compensation. We’ve always been involved in CDMA spread spectrum. It’s just IS-95 we do not support.”
The lawsuit is on hold while the companies continue negotiations, Ericsson said
