The New Qualcomm - a S&P500 company Message Board

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : The New Qualcomm - a S&P500 company

QCOM 174.58

-1.2%

3:59 PM EST

Public Reply Prvt Reply Mark as Last Read File

Previous 10 Next 10 Previous Next

To: w molloy who wrote (10037)	5/13/2000 3:25:00 AM
From: Clarksterh	Read Replies (4) of 13582

WM - Very cool find by postyle on the Nokia thread. Thanks for the pointer. I've never seen Qualcomm's royalty agreement before, and this is pretty obviously just about the entire thing with only the rate X'd out. As for the substance: 1) It appears to be true that Qualcomm did indeed license IDC's CDMA patents for only 10MHz or less (unless you assume that Qualcomm stripped out some of the rights IDC gave Q! in order to maintain some kind of advantage over the Q licensees - but I think this unlikely). This surprised me a little. So this begs several questions. First when do we hit 10MHz in 3g, and you probably know the answer to that better than I (I'd guess sometime well after 2005 - does anyone really need a semi-mobile bit rate of 3 or 4 Mbps which is higher than HDTV video will probably be at that point?) It also begs the question of whether IDCs rate will go up when they try to renegotiate. It was a pittance at the last agreement, but I'll defer discussion on this to number 3. 2) The fact that the IDC license is only for patents prior to the license has been discussed before, so I won't discuss it here again. 3) IDC has always claimed rights over everything under the sun. They invented TDMA don't you know (at least according to some of the IDC threadsters)? Thus the statement that they are claiming rights to all modes of 3g CDMA surprises me not at all. The question is how realistic are their claims, and how 'essential' are they really. The best measure of this is that IDC threadsters are the most serious and industrious on-line investors I have ever seen, and they do thousands of hours of research and I have yet to be pointed to one patent that is in even close to being in the same league as Qualcomm's. (Several I've been pointed to haven't been worth the paper they were printed on.) In addition, using some of my own filters I've tried to find IDC's best patents. Again, nothing close to Qualcomm's. In contrast the Qualcomm thread pointed me in the right direction almost immediately as do my filters. Thus, my moderately informed opinion is that all 3g CDMA modes will have multiple companies to whom royalties are owed, but that the sum total of everyone else's royalties will be less than Qualcomm's. Will IDC collect some? Perhaps. Is it something for Qualcomm to worry about? No. Hope this helps. The only real news to me was the 10MHz thing (a very mild Q! downer) and the details of the Q! licensing agreement with Q! licensees (very helpful in trying to understand Q's strategies.). All JMO Clark

Report TOU Violation

Share This Post

Public Reply Prvt Reply Mark as Last Read File

Previous 10 Next 10 Previous Next