Nokia announced today that the Administrative Law Judge overseeing the investigation initiated by Qualcomm against Nokia in the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) has ordered a stay of the proceedings until further notice. The trial had been scheduled to begin on March 5, 2007.On June 9, 2006 Qualcomm filed a complaint with the ITC requesting an investigation into the alleged infringement by Nokia’s GSM products of six Qualcomm patents. The ITC subsequently initiated an investigation on July 10, 2006.
Nokia is confident that it has not infringed any Qualcomm patents that are at issue in this investigation. Additionally, since Qualcomm filed its complaint, it has voluntarily withdrawn three of the six patents from the suit. The remaining three are all from the same patent family. Nokia believes the patent withdrawal reflects on the weakness of Qualcomm’s case.
If the case is not dismissed before the stay is lifted Nokia welcomes the opportunity to prove that the claims regarding the three remaining patents have no more merit than those Qualcomm has already voluntarily withdrawn.
I shouldn’t blog at 7:15 in the morning. I totally misread the press release.
The court date was set for March 5th, but it has now been delayed. No one knows when the trial will resume.