Dutch court dismisses Nokia patent case against Qualcomm

Well, it seems that Qualcomm (NSDQ: QCOM)’s finally catching a break in the litigious battlefield of patent-licensing. Nokia (NYSE: NOK) had recently filed suit against Qualcomm over the same, tired patent-licensing dispute in the Netherlands. You see, Nokia’s chip supplier, Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN), already pays licensing fees to Qualcomm to use their 3G technology. Nokia believes that they shouldn’t have to pay more licensing fees as a handset manufacturer to use Qualcomm’s technology – and wants a declaration of exhaustion against Qualcomm’s patents.

But, three judges at the court in The Hague have dismissed Nokia’s case against Qualcomm on grounds that the court did not have the jurisdiction to make any rulings on the matter. Further, the court has decided that Nokia’s complaints against Qualcomm were too broad in scope and did not clearly present enough information on specific patents or licensing deals.

The Dutch ruling follows on a German courts decision to dismiss Nokia’s patent-exhaustion case on similar grounds.

“This is the second time in as many months that a court in Europe has rejected Nokia’s attempts to have a declaration of exhaustion against Qualcomm’s patents,” a Qualcomm spokesman said in a prepared statement. Always the good sport, eh, Qualcomm?  Well, we’d be taking jabs at Nokia too. The licensing deals were worth about $500 million a year – a sizable chunk of change no matter how you slice it up.

[Via: Yahoo]