Qualcomm And Motorola Settle Patent Suits
SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - Telecommunications equipment companies Qualcomm Inc. (NasdaqNM:QCOM - news) and Motorola Inc. (NYSE:MOT - news) said on Tuesday they agreed to dismiss all claims and counterclaims in a series of patent infringement lawsuits between the companies that began in March 1997.
Qualcomm, a California-based wireless technology developer, and Motorola, an Illinois-based telecommunications and technology company, also agreed to extend their Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) cross-licenses.
The agreement ends three years of complex litigation comprising seven separate federal court cases alleging claims and counterclaims for patent 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.
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In addition, the companies said they have agreed to a three-year moratorium on patent infringement lawsuits with respect to CDMA subscriber products, network equipment, chipsets and test equipment.
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 covered 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 covers certain patents filed after July 3, 1995 and licenses patents for CDMA standards, the companies said in a joint statement. As part of the agreement, Motorola will pay royalties to Qualcomm at rates which are generally paid by the industry for using newly licensed patents. These include Qualcomm patents, which had been at issue in the lawsuits, 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. |
