Watching Nokia Corp. and Qualcomm Inc. exchange nasty barbs over intellectual property rights smacks of similar bickering between Qualcomm and L.M. Ericsson in 1999 over patents for the CDMA protocol.
The Qualcomm-Ericsson fistfight ended not in court but in a business deal.
Here’s what RCR Wireless News reported in March of 1999: “It was an unprecedented event. Qualcomm Inc., the biggest defender of CDMA technology, and L.M. Ericsson, the largest naysayer of the technology, embraced last week, ending more than 10 years of open hostilities between the two.
“It’s wonderful to be together,” said Dr. Irwin Jacobs, chairman and chief executive officer of Qualcomm, laughing and joking with Ericsson CEO Sven-Christer Nilsson at last week’s news conference in New York.
The statement was ironic considering how the two companies months ago were headed to court over cdmaOne patents and were ready to weather out an intellectual-property-rights standoff that appeared to threaten the International Telecommunication third-generation Union’s standards-setting process.”
Today, the argument is just a little different: Nokia, among others, has charged Qualcomm with anti-competitive behavior, and Qualcomm alleges Nokia’s GSM products violate Qualcomm patents. (Did you get that? Nokia’s GSM products.) It’s very confusing indeed.
Another interesting aspect of this ongoing battle is that neither Qualcomm nor Nokia are taking part in an effort that would enable one-stop licensing for W-CDMA patents. The W-CDMA Patent Licensing Program is an offshoot of standards work conducted in the European Telecommunications Standards Institute and the Third-Generation Partnership Project. A number of multinational players (some big names) are backing the effort, but not one of the largest chip suppliers or the largest handset manufacturer.
In ’99, Ericsson’s argument with Qualcomm ended with a cross-licensing agreement and Ericsson spending an undisclosed amount to buy Qualcomm’s lagging infrastructure business. It was shocking when Qualcomm and Ericsson made the announcement. After all, they were hated enemies. It was unprecedented.
Will these new charges of monopolies, unfair licensing practices and patent rights ultimately be decided in court or before the European Commission? I doubt it. I don’t even dare guess as to how this story will end, but I bet we’ll all be a little surprised.
