US International Trade Commission set to investigate Nokia 3G phones for patent licensing improprieties
By Will Park on Thursday, September 6th, 2007 at 12:05 PM PST In Announcements, Nokia, Partnerships, Technologies
It looks like Qualcomm isn’t the only 3G-player to feel the brunt of a United States’ International Trade Commission investigation. Finnish handset-manufacturing giant Nokia is now under the same scrutiny that brought US imports of Qualcomm (NSDQ: QCOM)’s 3G chipsets to a halt.
Wireless technology firm InterDigital filed a complaint with the US ITC – alleging Nokia (NYSE: NOK) improperly using two of InterDigital’s 3G technology patents. The two patents are integral to the WCDMA 3G technology that powers Nokia phones like the Nokia N75 and InterDigital is seeking a fair licensing deal.
The precedent that was set when Broadcom (NSDQ: BRCM) affected an ITC trade ban on Qualcomm’s 3G chipsets is starting to become apparent with this newest licensing spat. Rather than work out an amicable deal in private, we have yet another example of a company choosing to do their negotiation through the tax-payer supported ITC.
The US ITC has set a 45-day investigation period.
We can’t really say that we’re rooting for either side, but if we gotta choose, we pick InterDigital. Nokia previously ponied up $253 million from 2G technology patent deals that went awry in 2006, and it looks like they might be on the same contract-dispute path.
[Via: Yahoo]
