Wireless Engineering Beat

Keep pace with the latest happenings in the wireless engineering space from Rob Keenan, an editor with more than 12 years experience in the wireless engineering market.

Thursday, April 20, 2006

Qualcomm's up to its old tricks

It was interesting today when one of my colleagues, John Walko, reported on Nokia's phone results. As usual, Nokia reported strong earnings and also painted a pretty picture for growth in the mobile phone sector.

But, the more interesting element was not in Nokia's growth or the mobile phone industry's growth, it was in the discussion of Qualcomm's pursuit of Nokia on the patent infringement front. Since first pushing CDMA technology in the 90s, Qualcomm has often fought to protect it's intellectual property rights and position in the CDMA market in court. Now, as wideband CDMA-based systems begin to grow, Qualcomm is again looking to use the court to protect it's IP and maintain it's position in the wireless sector.

What you have to wonder now, however, is whether Qualcomm gone over the edge with its latest legal battles. As John pointed out in his news story, Broadcom, TI, Ericsson, Panasonic, and NEC think so. Personally, I think Qualcomm has a case if companies are stepping on its IP rights. But, I think Qualcomm also has to be careful here. If these legal disputes potentially slow down the adoption of W-CDMA in the market, then the market loses a whole. And, no one will win in the end if that happens.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home