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

To: data_rox who wrote (145351)	10/2/2006 2:36:47 PM
From: GPS Info	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 152472

Trimble’s GPS patents Trimble’s products are used for surveying and not for mobile phones. I believe that Trimble’s products would be (are?) used for synchronizing the cell towers in a CDMA system. FYI: These typically fall under the product area of “time transfer.” If these products are used in a carrier’s towers, I can not see any patent violations because the products have been paid for. Trimble’s products use “differential” GPS (DGPS) and real-time kinematic (RTK) patents to get to submeter and centimeter-level accuracies, respectively. I have never seen Qualcomm suggest that they either require or provide this level of accuracy. Before Qualcomm bought SnapTrack, did anyone see a suit filed by Trimble against SnapTrack for patent infringement? My memory is vague on this point, but I believe that Trimble employees wound up at SnapTrack. Given the locality between Trimble and SnapTrack, this would not be out of the question. Assuming that Trimble engineers went to SnapTrack and these engineers created new patents, it seems unlikely that these new patents would have knowingly infringed on Trimble patents. Again, SnapTrack was focused on E-911 given their press releases, and not surveying applications that would have competed in Trimble’s market areas. With high confidence, I’ll state that there’s no infringement in the RTK area because I see absolutely no overlap. The only area that I can conceive where Qualcomm would infringe on Trimble patents is where DGPS corrections are applied to an MS-assisted position fix. There are certain ways that these corrections can be applied, but the simplest application of corrections is not patented, AFAIK. Assuming that Qualcomm understands the value of patents and did their due diligence regarding SnapTrack’s patents for mobile applications before they spent $1bn, the probability that they now infringe on a Trimble patent is very low - but not 0. I just don’t currently see the overlap in patents where Nokia can benefit from Trimble’s license - but I’m just one data point. When someone provides a specific patent that might infringe, I’ll throw in my two cents on that as well. I still have 50 cents left to spend on this board. Will I put my money where my mouth is? Yes, if the stock prices get below $32, I’ll swap out my languishing CSCO for QCOM. I see this as a tactical move by Nokia, where the only benefit is its FUD value. It certainly worked for this board, so I can see why it would work for the less-informed, open market as well. Best to all