SAN DIEGO – Qualcomm Inc. and Nokia have settled their legal battles with number one phone maker Nokia agreeing to pay Qualcomm an upfront payment and ongoing royalties. The companies did not disclose the specific terms of the agreement.
Under the 15-year agreement, Nokia has a license to use all of Qualcomm’s patents in its wireless equipment and in return it agreed not to use its patents against Qualcomm, allowing the company to use Nokia technology in its chipsets. Nokia has also agreed to assign ownership of a number of patents to Qualcomm, including patents essential to widely used wireless technology standards WCDMA, GSM and OFDMA.
As part of the agreement, Nokia said it would withdraw an anti-competitiveness complaint it made along with several other companies against Qualcomm to the European Commission. "We believe that this agreement is positive for the industry, enabling the market to benefit from innovation and new technologies," said Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, CEO of Nokia Corporation. "The positive financial impact of this agreement is within Nokia’s original expectations and fully reflects our leading intellectual property and market positions."
"I’m very pleased that we have come to this important agreement," said Dr. Paul E. Jacobs, CEO of Qualcomm. "The terms of the new license agreement, including the financial and other value provided to Qualcomm, reflect our strong intellectual property position across many current and future generation technologies. This agreement paves the way for enhanced opportunities between the companies in a number of areas."
