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

To: scott who wrote (8945)	2/27/1998 4:24:00 PM
From: Gregg Powers	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 152472

Scott: Yours is an interesting question that begets an interesting, and somewhat surprising, answer. Patents typically have a seventeen year life, but QC's IPR has been steadily created and patented, over the last six or seven years. So, one could extrapolate a median patent expiration around 2010. However, a royalty bearing license agreement differs from a patent since it is contractual and negotiated. QC's IS-95 agreements minimally extend through the patent expiration period, but (to my surprise) some are perpetual (that, boys and girls, is not a typo). The logic for a perpetual obligation derives from the fact that the licensee not only gets to use your IPR (i.e. the tie to patent life) but gets to accelerate his time-to-market (and therefore his participation in the CDMA opportunity). Best Regards, Gregg