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QCOM Y MOT What a marriage--reconciliation!!!!
QUALCOMM and Motorola Extend License Agreements and Settle Long-Running Patent
Litigation over CDMA Wireless Phones
SAN DIEGO, March 28 /PRNewswire/ -- QUALCOMM Incorporated (Nasdaq: QCOM)
and Motorola (NYSE: MOT) today announced an agreement to extend their Code
Division Multiple Access (CDMA) cross-licenses and to dismiss all claims and
counterclaims in the series of patent infringement lawsuits between the
companies that began in March 1997.
Under the new settlement, QUALCOMM and Motorola have agreed to leave
unmodified the financial terms of their original 1990 royalty-bearing license
agreement for CDMA applications that encompassed certain patents filed before
July 3, 1995. The licenses granted by Motorola to QUALCOMM under the 1990
agreements for subscriber and infrastructure products have been terminated
since QUALCOMM has since sold its subscriber and infrastructure businesses.
The new accord encompasses certain patents filed after July 3, 1995 and
licenses patents for CDMA standards including IS-95 A and B, RTT MC 1X, 1X
Plus and 1Xtreme. As part of the agreement, Motorola will pay royalties to
QUALCOMM at rates consistent with those generally paid by the industry for
using newly licensed patents. These include QUALCOMM patents, which had been
at issue in the litigation, for CDMA subscriber products across all licensed
CDMA standards. The settlement, consistent with their 1990 agreement, also
confirms that both Motorola and QUALCOMM have the right to market CDMA
chipsets without paying a royalty to the other company based on chipset sales.
The agreement ends three years of complex litigation comprising seven
separate federal court cases alleging claims and counterclaims for patent
infringement, trade dress infringement, breach of the parties' license
agreements, misappropriation of trade secrets and unfair competition. Each
company is dismissing its claims and counterclaims against the other. No
payments are being made in consideration for the dismissals. In addition, the
parties have agreed to a three-year moratorium on patent infringement lawsuits
with respect to CDMA subscriber products, network equipment, chipsets and test
equipment.
Additional details of the settlement were not announced by either company.
"QUALCOMM is pleased to put this lengthy and divisive dispute with
Motorola behind us," said Dr. Irwin Mark Jacobs, chairman and CEO of QUALCOMM.
"We expect this amicable business resolution to form the foundation of a
closer relationship with Motorola, one of the earliest supporters of CDMA and
one of QUALCOMM's first licensees. No longer distracted by our legal
disputes, we will be devoting renewed energy to seeking ways of working
together to expand the market for CDMA and to deliver increasingly more
valuable services for CDMA subscribers."
"QUALCOMM was the first company to envision the power of CDMA digital
technology for commercial wireless applications and along with Motorola
spearheaded CDMA's acceptance in markets around the world," said Christopher
B. Galvin, chairman and CEO of Motorola. "Since the strengths of Motorola and
QUALCOMM in CDMA technology greatly complement each other, our decision to
resolve the current legal issues will enable both companies to mutually
leverage those strengths to develop and deliver exciting new CDMA applications
to the wireless world."
Motorola, Inc. is a global leader in providing integrated communications
solutions and embedded electronic solutions. Sales in 1999 were
$30.9 billion. |
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