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

To: ZChazz who wrote (17213)	10/26/1998 8:43:00 PM
From: straight life	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 152472

ITU Sanguine Over Qualcomm's Hardline IPR Stance By Vineeta Shetty at Communications International The International Telecommunication Union's head of standardization has moved to calm fears that efforts to establish an universal wireless communication standard might be derailed by Qualcomm's threat to asset its patent rights to certain "essential" CDMA technologies. Theodore Irmer, director of the ITU's Standardization Bureau, made his remarks on Sunday in response to a letter it received from Qualcomm on the eve of the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in Minneapolis. In the letter, Qualcomm reiterated its claims to control essential patents connected to five CDMA-based proposals included in the ITU's IMT-2000 radio interface domain standard. Qualcomm's stance has been interpreted as a disruptive move by other contributors to the IMT-2000 initiative, some of whom question the veracity of Qualcomm's claims which, if pressed, might spark tit-fot-tat response from other vendors. However, Irmer has taken a conciliatory position, and said there was no cause for panic and that the letter would not grind ITU's standards development to a halt. "Qualcomm is making a constructive proposal towards convergence and is by no means closing the door to development of a common universal standard," Irmer told Communications International. "They have clearly listed the IPR they are willing to share, and those they are not." Despite these reassurances, Irmer did conceded that retaliatory actions from other vendors is a possibility. For instance, Ericsson has said that it controls intellectual property rights (IPRs) to technology elements that could be essential to Qualcomm's plans. In its letter addressed to Robert Jones, the Director of the Radiocommunications Bureau, Qualcomm said it was willing to license its IPR with respect to the CDMA2000 proposal (contributed by the US Telecommunications Industry Association towards the IMT-2000), but not for the W-CDMA proposals submitted by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI); the Japanese Association of Radio Industries and Businesses (ARIB); the Korean Telecommunications Technology Association (TTA) and the North American WCDMA version of the US T1P1. Qualcomm reserved its right to notify the ITU of its position with regard to other radio interface proposals at a later time. Critics responded that Qualcomm had not specified what their IPRs are and whether they were really "essential" for any administration or market deploying a wideband market. Qualcomm's position is that the converged CDMA standard is not backwards compatible with IS-41, core to its CDMAOne offering. According to Mindel del Torre, president of TMG, representing Qualcomm on the US delegation to PP-98, Japanese tests showed there were no discernible differences between GSM and IS-41 in terms of performance, features or cost. Her view was that the choice should then turn on the one that is most compatible with existing technology. "Qualcomm is submitting this letter well in advance of the December 31 deadline for submissions relating to IPRs, in recognition of the need for consensus-building." Christopher Corbett, head of marketing and distribution for ETSI said, "We respect the fact that Qualcomm is exercising its right to withhold its IPRs in further development of the UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA) in a non-discriminatory, fair and reasonable basis as sought by ETSI. However, Qualcomm has sat in meetings when consensus was being built."