moat;
Here is the final outcome between IDC and QCOM...IDC threw QCOM a bone so that they(IDC) could continue on with development of 3g and 4g technologies....IDC has 800+ patents of their own and have (per Goldberg)"patents essential to each of the 5 specifications under the 3G technology...anyone practicing that technology will have to deal with us"....
Imho..everything that is going on with IDC...just happens...when it is positioning to move much higher...SIS
Here is the article:
"QUALCOMM and InterDigital settle CDMA patent-infringement lawsuits 11/02/1994 Business Wire (Copyright (c) 1994, Business Wire)
SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 2, 1994-- QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM), InterDigital Communications Corp. (ASE:IDC) and InterDigital Technology Corp. (ITC) Wednesday announced that they have reached a global settlement, resulting in the dismissal of their respective Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) patent litigation.
ITC had filed a lawsuit against QUALCOMM alleging that certain CDMA products built by QUALCOMM in compliance with IS-95, a North American CDMA digital cellular standard, infringed three of ITC's patents. QUALCOMM had filed a lawsuit against InterDigital alleging that their Broadband-CDMA development activities infringed one of QUALCOMM 's patents. Both lawsuits have been dismissed.
The settlement covers only CDMA and does not affect ITC's Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) patent claims regarding GSM, the European Global System for Mobile Communications, or IS-54, the North American TDMA digital cellular standard, nor does it affect ITC's current patent-infringement litigation against Ericsson and Motorola with respect to IS-54.
In return for a one-time payment by QUALCOMM of $5.5 million, ITC has granted to QUALCOMM a fully paid, royalty-free, worldwide license to use and to sublicense ITC's existing CDMA patents and certain future CDMA patents to make and sell products for IS-95-type wireless applications, including, but not limited to, cellular, PCS, wireless local-loop and satellite applications.
QUALCOMM has the right to sublicense ITC's CDMA patents so that QUALCOMM 's licensees will be free to manufacture and sell IS-95-type CDMA products without requiring any payment to ITC. ITC's patents concerning cellular overlay and interference cancellation are not licensed to QUALCOMM .
QUALCOMM has granted to InterDigital a royalty-free license to use and to sublicense the one patent that QUALCOMM had asserted against InterDigital and a royalty-bearing license to use certain of QUALCOMM 's CDMA patents in InterDigital 's B-CDMA products if needed. InterDigital believes that it will not be necessary to use any of QUALCOMM 's royalty-bearing or nonlicensed patents in its B-CDMA system.
In addition, QUALCOMM has agreed, subject to certain restrictions, to license certain CDMA patents on a royalty-bearing basis to those InterDigital customers that desire to use QUALCOMM 's patents. The license to InterDigital does not apply to IS-95-type systems or to satellite systems.
Certain of QUALCOMM 's patents, relating to key IS-95 features such as soft and softer hand-off, variable-rate vocoding and orthogonal (Walsh) coding, are not licensed to InterDigital .
``We believe that we do not infringe the InterDigital patents at issue, but we recognize that legal actions can continue for several years through trials and appeals,' said Dr. Irwin Jacobs, chief executive officer of QUALCOMM .
``This settlement agreement permits us to focus our efforts on commercializing our CDMA products and technology without diverting our attention to time-consuming and costly litigation. QUALCOMM and our licensees can build and sell IS-95-type CDMA equipment around the world without concern for patent-infringement suits by InterDigital .'
``We are extremely pleased that we were able to resolve our litigation with QUALCOMM in a fair and equitable fashion,' stated Robert S. Bramson, president of ITC. ``This settlement agreement permits ITC to focus on its current TDMA litigation and its ongoing licensing program. It also permits InterDigital to continue the development and commercialization of its B-CDMA technology for use in wireless local-loop, PCS and satellite applications.'
InterDigital is a world leader in TDMA and B-CDMA technology. Its UltraPhone TDMA digital wireless radiotelephone system is ordered or installed in more than 200 locations worldwide.
With headquarters in San Diego, QUALCOMM develops, manufactures, markets, licenses and operates advanced communications systems and products based on its proprietary digital wireless technologies.
The company's primary product and development areas are the OmniTRACS system (a geostationary satellite-based, mobile communications system providing two-way data and position-reporting services), CDMA wireless communications systems and products and, in conjunction with others, the GLOBALSTAR low-earth-orbit (LEO) satellite communications system.
Other company products include the Eudora by Qualcomm electronic- mail software, VLSI components and communications equipment.
NOTE TO EDITORS: OmniTRACS is a registered trademark of QUALCOMM Incorporated. GLOBALSTAR is a trademark of Globalstar L.P. Eudora is a registered trademark of the University of Illinois licensed to QUALCOMM Incorporated.
Contact: CONTACT: QUALCOMM Incorporated, San Diego Richard Grannis, 619/658-4817 or InterDigital Communications Corp. Susan Sutton, 610/278-7831 13:47 ET NOV 02, 1994 |
