PARIS, Nov. 7 - In an escalating legal battle, Qualcomm said Monday that it had filed suit against Nokia, accusing it of infringing a dozen patents related to G.S.M., a cellphone standard that is used in two out of three handsets worldwide. þþThe suit, filed Friday in a federal court in San Diego, comes after six companies - including Nokia, Ericsson, Texas Instruments and Broadcom - filed a complaint Oct. 28 with the European Union, charging that Qualcomm offered lower royalties on its cellphone chip patents if customers also bought the chips.þþThe lawsuit intensifies an already fierce battle over one segment of the mobile phone business: the growing market for handsets with multimedia features like music players and cameras. þþRobin Hearn, an analyst at Ovum in London, said Qualcomm, based in San Diego, was retaliating to make sure it held on to its patent royalties, a principal source of income. ÿI have been expecting a meaty response,ÿ Mr. Hearn said. ÿThey'll probably get their spat over with, cuff each other in the face and come to some agreement.ÿþþQualcomm, a $5.7 billion company, makes cellphone microchips and holds patents that are essential for other phone technology. Its main technology is C.D.M.A., or code division multiple access, which is used in networks in the United States run by Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel.þþBut Qualcomm also sells chips for W-C.D.M.A., a third-generation technology in use in Europe and Asia. In the European complaint against Qualcomm, the six companies argued that it was demanding unreasonable fees for use of its patents in the technology needed for W-C.D.M.A., which allows for faster data transfers and multimedia features like video calls. þþIn its suit, Qualcomm said that Nokia had infringed on 11 Qualcomm patents and it demanded that Nokia stop selling and producing products in the United States designed for G.S.M. mobile phone networks.þþNokia, based in Espoo, Finland, was unavailable for comment. It is the No. 1 maker of cellphones.þþ
Source: NY Times
