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

To: waitwatchwander who wrote (62757)	4/18/2007 8:53:28 AM
From: limtex	Respond to of 197214

ns - Feb 2006 3GSM China's home-grown 3G standard TD-SCDMA is on course for a hard launch this year, and to prove it, its representative industry body the TD-SCDMA Forum showed off a range of handsets and vendors at 3GSM this week. The technology is being developed to 4G and beyond, and Chinese vendors are eyeing markets beyond Asia. The Forum's press conference, while sparsely populated, turned out to be the most intriguing of the show - giving us a fine display of both China's technical confidence and tact. It was only after some goading that we got a sense of how the Chinese manufacturers see the IP battlefield. TD-SCDMA is backed by the Chinese government with the intention of promoting domestic business and know-how, and skirting the royalties demanded by European vendors and Qualcomm. And the IP issue is at center stage. 3G has a horribly complex series of royalty arrangements. Manufacturers of the Qualcomm flavor of 3G, cdma2000, pay Qualcomm a royalty; those who choose the W-CDMA flavor used in Japan and Europe pay both a Qualcomm royalty and make a contribution to a royalty pool. It's a sensitive subject, that has recently tipped over into private litigation between the parties, and an antitrust probe in Europe against Qualcomm. By sidestepping these royalties, TD-SCDMA will be much more attractive to potential vendors. But for now, it's a war of nerves between the TD-SCDMA and Qualcomm that's being conducted largely through the press. Jing Wang, Secretary General of the TD-SCDMA Forum was pressed repeatedly on what Chinese vendors would do if they received an IP demand from Qualcomm. Would they nay or pay? Wang replied, not unreasonably, that it was premature for vendors to take a position before they'd seen the IP claim, let alone the parking fee. The subtext was that Chinese businesses don't simply pay up on demand - especially if that demand has been made through the press. Wang urged all parties - and Qualcomm and Ericsson (the other major IP holder in CDMA) are members of the TD-SCDMA Forum - to sit down and thrash it out. "Qualcomm has not spoken collectively to TD-SCDMA Forum," he said. "There hasn't been any official IPR talk. My view is they have to talk, either individually or in another manner. And so do other companies." Sounding the very model of diplomacy, Wang pointed out - "The TD SCDMA vendors are ready to talk. The problem is now that to facilitate a conclusion, you have to make sure all your patent claims must be on the table and discussed. We want to have this discussion." Then things got really interesting. Put your IPR on the table Recall that almost two years ago, China made a pledge not to give favor to TD-SCDMA and not to monkey around with private negotiations between foreign IP interests and its own manufacturers. (And to agree to GM food - but that's another story). But that turned out to be another diplomatic statement. Reports circulating this week suggest that China has instructed the W-CDMA trials to wind down, giving the green light for TD-SCDMA. "It's not black and white," said Wang, singling out Qualcomm: "Believe me they don't have that many [IPR claims]" he added, with not a little confidence. Datung has quite a few too, he said. The inferences we're invited to take away are that the TD-SCDMA engineers have cunningly sidestepped the CDMA IP claims in their designs - and that Qualcomm doesn't really have that much to boast about. We'd very much like to hear Mr Viterbi's response to that one. Of course as NTP has proved in its case against RIM, you only need one patent to stick and the legal system will ensure your claims for royalties are upheld. But which international legal system is enforceable in China? This is a rhetorical question. The issue of 3G IPR has featured prominently in previous WTO talks, and looks set to again. The difference being that this time, China is negotiating from a position of strength. The Chinese are mindful that at the turn of the last century, American domestic growth was helped by a successful combination of protectionism and IP "theft" - so what's sauce for the goose is also sauce for the gander. Qualcomm and Ericsson hardly need to be reminded who invented the firecracker. ® theregister.co.uk

To: waitwatchwander who wrote (62757)	4/18/2007 9:04:33 AM
From: limtex	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 197214

ns - Steve Altman Q1 2006 earnings discussion...Well, we have, I think we’ve announced previously we have a number of agreements with on the non-Chinese manufacture side with all the major manufacturers that cover TDS CDMA, cover WCDMA, cover CDMA2000. There are still agreements that will need to be entered into with respect to TDS CDMA and the Chinese manufacturers. Our position right now is we’re continuing to kind of watch that market. It’s not clear to us at this point how and when and to what extent TDS CDMA will be deployed in China although it certainly appears that it will have some share there. But at this point we do have TDS CDMA agreements. I think our portfolio has been recognized by many major manufacturers in that regard, but we still have some work to do on the TDS CDMA side with Chinese manufacturers. Best, L

To: waitwatchwander who wrote (62757)	4/18/2007 9:10:02 AM
From: limtex	Respond to of 197214

ns- NOV 2005 - BEIJING, Nov. 25 (Xinhuanet) -- The report that Qualcomm has decided to collect patent fees on China's homegrown standard TD-SCDMA is not true, said sources close to Qualcomm. A vice president of Qualcomm said at a 3G World Congress held in Hong Kong that Qualcomm has decided to collect patent fees on TD-SCDMA. The news aroused attention in the mobile telecommunication field. The sources close to Qualcomm said, however, the company never made such claims. Qualcomm has been keeping a close eye on and giving support to the progress of TD-SCDMA and hopes to cooperate with Chinese companies for a win-win result in the industry, it said. The concerned department of Qualcomm is contacting the reporter who wrote the news and will make a rectification announcement later. Qualcomm has been giving great support to China's 3G market, said the sources. Recently, the company donated a batch of terminal testing machines worth over one million US dollars to the Academy of Telecommunications under the Ministry of Information Industry. The academy, on behalf of the Chinese companies engaged in 3G development, is negotiating with Qualcomm on patent license agreement. The latest negotiation held in November ended with no fruits. TD-SCDMA is considered the homegrown technology for the third generation mobile communication and Chinese companies hope to avoid expensive patent fees in the 2G period. However, in the technology standard based on CDMA, the patent shares of Chinese companies are still unclear. Media report said that Qualcomm who has CDMA patent had claime dpatent ownership of all technologies with suffix of CDMA. Best, L

To: waitwatchwander who wrote (62757)	4/18/2007 9:15:13 AM
From: limtex	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 197214

ns - Feb 2006 - Chinese 3G Equipment Providers in Talks on IP Issues 2006-1-20 China should first solve the intellectual property problems of 3G with Qualcomm, including its national 3G standard TD-SCDMA. Most of the 3G-related patents are in the hands of over 30 foreign companies, except Huawei and Datang Telecom have 5 percent of WCDMA-related basic patents and 7.3 percent of TD- SCDMA-related basic patents respectively. The high patent fee will be one of the major problems hindering the development of the wireless market. The mobile equipment industry will pay patent fee of USD 80 billion to USD 100 billion to the patent owners like Qualcomm, Nokia, Motorola, and Ericsson. For now, ZTE has considerable basic patents in WCDMA, CDMA2000, and TD-SCDMA. Many Chinese key testing indexes are superior to those of foreign companies. Chinese carriers have converted from followers to leaders. As owning a great deal of 3G patents, ZTE could get a preferential price in the 3G patent negotiation with foreign companies. As Huawei has had a large amount of CDMA2000 and WCDMA equipment and terminals and reached agreements with Qualcomm on patent authorization, it will pay one percent of the domestically-sold products to Qualcomm as patent fee and six to seven percent of the exported products as patent fee, according to an official with Huawei. Patent shows a company‘s R&D ability in telecom technologies, but it is not so fatal to the company‘s market performance as the technology maturity and brand, according to a market analyst. Chinese companies should have advantages in the key TD- SCDMA patents. There is no latest statistics on the basic TD- SCDMA patent owners. There was some statistics showing that Nokia owns 32 percent of the patent rights, Ericsson 23 percent, Siemens 11 percent, Datang Telecom 7.3 percent, and Qualcomm 2 percent. Now Huawei is at a leading position in WCDMA and CDMA2000 fields. Huawei has made an investment of over CNY 6 billion in 3G and R&D staff of near 6,000. The telecom equipment provider has had 18 WCDMA commercial contracts and over 10 CDMA2000 commercial contracts around the world. Its 3G solutions have been applied into Holland, the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Thailand. There are 22 companies among the global top 50 telecom operators becoming Huawei‘s customers. The experience in the application of commercial networks makes Huawei capable to be the partner of any mobile carriers in the world. ZTE has become one of the major suppliers of CDMA2000 globally. Its equipment are adopted by over 90 carriers in over 60 countries. The WCDMA solutions are applied into more than ten countries including Tunis, Libya, Tajikistan, and Nepal. The technologies of Chinese companies are not outdated, and they even have advantages in some aspects, according to the testing of domestic carriers. However, there is still a big gap. According to Ericsson‘s statistics, Ericsson has had over 40 percent market shares in the global WCDMA market by last January. The company has 56 WCDMA contracts among the total 106 ones in the world. Some foreign companies may take 3G market shares by lowering the prices in a short period, but Chinese companies will have more advantages in cost of research, development, market, sales, and maintenance from a long-term perspective, pointed a ZTE official. Take Huawei for example, most of its staff are marketing and R&D personnel and few are production personnel. If Huawei obtains some 3G orders, many Chinese foundries will lower its production cost in a large scale, revealed an industry expert close to Huawei. Source: sinocast Best, L