AmTech believes that China will try to pay little or no royalties to QCOM and may contend that QCOM patents are not enforceable if officials rule the new technology is innovative and different from CDMA2000.
As pointed out on another thread courtesy JMullen:
Siemens is the primary co-developer of TD-SCDMA with various Chinese companies. Siemens and Qualcomm on
Aug 26, 2002 jointly issued a press release modifying their existing licensing agreement wherein the "License now includes infrastructure equipment for ALL CDMA Standards"
Further, if the Chinese intent is to introduce their own version of CDMA" and "will try to pay little or no royalties to QCOM", why then is China Unicom expanding its new CDMA network to incorporate more capacity and 3G CDMA2000 technology (at a cost of over $1B), and
why was a Ericsson VP recently quoted as stating that the China Unicom GSM network will be converted to CDMA2000?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
QUALCOMM and Siemens Modify Existing Licensing Agreement
— License Now Includes Infrastructure Equipment for all CDMA Standards —
— Subscriber License Covers Subscriber Units for UMTS (WCDMA) Standards —
SAN DIEGO -- August 26, 2002 -- QUALCOMM Incorporated (Nasdaq: QCOM), pioneer and world leader of Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) digital wireless technology, and Siemens Aktiengesellschaft (NYSE: SI) today announced that they have modified the terms of their existing CDMA cross-license agreement.
The terms of the multi-million dollar expansion grants the Siemens Information and Communication Mobile Group (IC Mobile) a royalty-bearing license under QUALCOMM’s patents to make and sell infrastructure and subscriber equipment for CDMA wireless systems. The expansion also grants QUALCOMM royalty-free rights under Siemens’ patents to market and sell CDMA components, including multimode chipsets. Under the new agreement, the Subscriber Unit
royalty rate will be the same, irrespective of the standard implemented.
"Siemens has a long-standing history of bringing innovative technologies to many markets across the globe," said Steve Altman, president of QUALCOMM Technology Licensing. "We are pleased to expand the Siemens license agreement, and look forward to Siemens’ contributions as they market their successful third-generation wireless products and solutions."
"Siemens is a leading equipment supplier for existing wireless systems and expects to continue its success as third-generation networks roll out across the globe," said Lothar Pauly, board member of Siemens IC Mobile. "This license agreement further improves QUALCOMM’s position to successfully market their third-generation multimode components."
QUALCOMM Incorporated (www.qualcomm.com) is a leader in developing and delivering innovative digital wireless communications products and services based on the Company’s CDMA digital technology. The Company’s business areas include CDMA chipsets and system software; technology licensing; the Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless™ (BREW™) applications platform; QChat™ push-to-talk technology; Eudora® e-mail software; digital cinema
systems; and satellite-based systems including portions of the Globalstar™ system and wireless fleet management systems, OmniTRACS® and OmniExpress®. QUALCOMM owns patents that are essential to all of the CDMA wireless telecommunications standards that have been adopted or proposed for adoption by standards-setting bodies worldwide. QUALCOMM has licensed its essential CDMA patent portfolio to more than 100 telecommunications equipment manufacturers worldwide. Headquartered in San Diego, Calif., QUALCOMM is included in the S&P 500 Index and traded on The Nasdaq Stock Market® under the ticker symbol QCOM
As a Director Member of the TD-SCDMA Forum, it's hard to believe that QUALCOMM is too worried about royalty disputes, even if this horse flies.
M
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