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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Incorporated (QCOM) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Boplicity who wrote (89851)12/11/2000 8:23:15 AM
From: Cooters  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 152472
 
Qualcomm sees $80 mln charge for arbitration ruling

--From AOL. A little more detail.-- Cooters

NEW YORK, Dec 11 (Reuters) - An international arbitration panel has ruled that wireless communications technology company Qualcomm Inc. <QCOM.O> must share certain royalties on sales of its technology in South Korea, and the company will record an $80 million charge to cover that cost, Qualcomm said on Monday.

San Diego-based Qualcomm said in a statement it must share additional royalties with the Korean Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, or ETRI.

In addition to back payments of royalties, the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce ruled that Qualcomm must continue to share royalties it receives only on sales of certain code division multiple access, or CDMA, equipment for use in South Korea. That cost is expected to be on the order of about $4 million per quarter, it said.

Qualcomm will record the charge in its fiscal 2001 first quarter, ending this month.

"While we are disappointed by the ICA's decision, we continue to look forward to receiving strong royalty revenues from sales of CDMA equipment in Korea," said Louis Lupin, senior vice president and general counsel of Qualcomm. "The ICA's decision does not in any way affect Qualcomm's ability to collect royalties on CDMA, WCDMA or other CDMA-based standards, and has no impact on the ability of Qualcomm To collect royalties from sales of CDMA equipment in Korea."

08:04 12-11-00



To: Boplicity who wrote (89851)12/11/2000 8:30:17 AM
From: Jon Koplik  Respond to of 152472
 
Re : possible worries about a "crack in the patent armor" -- NO. The situation in Korea was a very specific (weird) arrangement.

Where ... (if I remember correctly) it had something to do with Korea sort of "jump starting" the rest of the world with adopting CDMA in a large way (requiring, if fact, that all wireless in Korea be CDMA (again -- if I remember correctly)).

So, the situation in Korea has NOTHING to do with any other Qualcomm / CDMA royalties situation anywhere else in the world.

Jon.



To: Boplicity who wrote (89851)12/11/2000 10:10:26 AM
From: slacker711  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 152472
 
I wonder if others will be able to use this against QCOM? It's seems to be a little crack in the patent armor.

I dont think that this is the case. If I remember correctly, ETRI entered into a royalty sharing agreement with Qualcomm for CDMA infrastructure and handsets sold in Korea. The conflict came in when Qualcomm cited the fact that the contract specifically used the word "cellular". Qualcomm maintained that the royalty agreement did not apply to PCS (1800MHz) sales. Qualcomm withheld payments on all of the PCS sales (which now has been reversed). I dont see much impact towards any other licensees.

My guess is that the exact situation is detailed in an SEC filing....

Slacker