ESPOO, Finland-Nokia Corp. fired back at Qualcomm Inc., arguing the company’s patent-infringement lawsuit is a thinly-veiled reprisal against Nokia and five other companies that claim Qualcomm has engaged in anti-competitive behavior.
Although Qualcomm said its lawsuit was the result of a breakdown in licensing negotiations, Nokia argued that there were no negotiations to begin with. Nokia said Qualcomm’s lawsuit is further evidence that Qualcomm “continues to disregard its obligations to offer to license its alleged essential patents on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms.”
“The timing of this lawsuit and the comments of Qualcomm’s general counsel that a cooperative resolution of these issues is unlikely, when the patents have not been verified and licensing terms have not yet been offered or discussed, is completely inconsistent with the basic licensing principles to which Qualcomm is obligated,” Nokia said in a statement.
Nokia’s response follows Qualcomm’s announcement that it filed suit against Nokia for infringing on 12 of its patents.
“We have been discussing a number of issues with Nokia for some time, including the fact that we have essential GSM patents for which Nokia is not licensed, and we are disappointed that this has resulted in litigation,” said Louis Lupin, Qualcomm’s senior vice president and general counsel, in announcing the lawsuit. “Until recently, we had been led to believe that these issues might be resolved cooperatively and amicably. However, it now appears that a cooperative resolution of these issues is quite unlikely and we must move forward with the litigation in order to protect our rights and to get these issues resolved.”
Qualcomm’s lawsuit against Nokia comes shortly after Nokia and five other wireless companies filed complaints with the European Commission, arguing that Qualcomm’s W-CDMA licensing tactics are unfair.
