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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Moderated Thread - please read rules before posting -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kent Rattey who wrote (1568)	7/29/2000 1:26:03 PM
From: data_rox	Respond to of 196649

Kent Re: Philips and W-CDMA Anybody remember QCOM's 1st WCDMA licensee? wirelessweek.com Qualcomm Inc. and Philips Electronics NV have patched up their differences over code division multiple access intellectual property rights. The two companies last week formed a cross-licensing agreement where Qualcomm and Philips Consumer Communications will grant each other rights to certain CDMA patents. Qualcomm also dismissed a lawsuit against U.S. Philips Corp. that concerned CDMA IPRs. PCC is a joint venture of Lucent Technologies Inc. and Philips Electronics that formed last fall to design, produce and market analog and digital wireless consumer products. "We are pleased to be able to settle our differences with Philips," said Qualcomm President Harvey White, "and expect to continue the important positive business relationships that the companies have established over the years." According to the announcement, Qualcomm granted PCC a license under "certain of its patents" to develop, manufacture and sell CDMA handsets, including those for cdmaOne applications and for the proposed European Telecommunications Stan- dards Institute's Universal Mobile Communications System standard referred to as W-CDMA. Philips granted Qualcomm a license under "certain of its patents" for Qualcomm's own use and for sale of CDMA products. Christine Trimble, spokeswoman for Qualcomm, said this is the first license the company has issued that gives access to its W-CDMA technologies. "This is a major European manufacturer that is now licensed for W-CDMA, and we interpret that as a sign that CDMA will be part of the next generation of technologies." Terry Vega, PCC's executive vice president for wireless products, stated that "PCC is a technology-neutral company that is committed to advancing all of the current infrastructure standards, and we believe that this agreement will aid us in further establishing ourselves in the important CDMA technologies sector." David Moorhouse, an analyst in the semiconductor group at Dataquest Europe, said that the agreement could be a strategic move for both sides in this agreement. "[PCC] has a very aggressive target to be in the top five players worldwide for handsets, irrespective of technologies. It's already shown very aggressive growth in GSM." "One of the big questions of the moment is that Qualcomm retains all the IPR for CDMA and ETSI wants access to it for the UMTS third-generation cellular [standard]," Moorhouse said. "At some point in time Qualcomm will have to decide if they want to license this technology to leading GSM players, and the opportunity may arise for them that they may want to exchange their CDMA IPR for GSM IPR so Qualcomm can participate in the UMTS-based third-generation cellular." Perry LaForge, executive director of the CDMA Development Group, said the announcement shows that "Qualcomm is open to licensing critical patents for W-CDMA and for wideband-cdmaOne technologies to those manufacturers that show some good faith working arrangements with them." Qualcomm had filed suit against Philips in the U.S. District Court in San Diego in May 1997, to settle a complaint by Philips that Qualcomm was infringing on three of Philips' CDMA patents, according to a Qualcomm statement issued at the time of that filing last year. Qualcomm denied the complaint and asserted that Philips' patents were invalid. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------