Fundamental Patent Expiration
DoR,
general technology areas from the late 80's - early 90's" that should give us all a big hint as to what QUALCOMM "fundamental" patents in what patent families, in fact, are fully paid up ... ... Aren't these fully paid up anyway because QCOM's Intellectual Property Rights have expired.....
My read is that they are fully paid up paid up because of a specific grant in the '92 license agreement expanded in 2001.
Are some of the fundamental patents QUALCOMM trumpets and has hung its hat on in the past expired or nearing expiration over the next few years?
Certainly.
<< If these are the fully paid patents that Nokia is referring to, this isn't specific to just Nokia, they are fully paid to all whose wish to use them ... >>
They are or will be expired, but not "fully paid up." What is expired is the Nokia QUALCOMM cross license. it is in the process of being renegotiated (however diligently or non-diligently) and as far as Nokia is concerned "my patents trump your patents because they are fundamental root patents, not just claimed essential patents" is not in play.
The bulk of the other 70+ QUALCOMM WCDMA licensees were negotiated when "fundamental patents" were fully in play and those licensees have enjoyed the use of QUALCOMM's early "fundamental" patents from the date of contract extension to their pending expiration and most of those licensees are obligated to live with the "standard rate" they negotiated well into the next decade. One of those licenses is due for renewal in 2011 and another a year or 2 later if memory serves.
<< it is my understanding that there other essential patents that have not expired associated with WCDMA. >>
There certainly are ... from QUALCOMM, Nokia, Ericsson, DoCoMo, Motorola, InterDigital and 25 to 30 odd others.
Bear in mind that while QUALCOMM probably generated patents applicable to WCDMA since WCDMA standardization began in Japan's ARIB in early 1997, and in ETSI in February 1988, QUALCOMM did not commit anything other than minimal resources to that effort until mid-2001 and had few contributions to ARIB's, ETSI's, or 3GPP's 3G standardization process before mid-2001.
Cheers,
- Eric - |
