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Technology Stocks : Interdigital Communication(IDCC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jim Lurgio who wrote (2613)	2/15/1999 11:34:00 PM
From: Bill Dalglish	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 5195

Jim, Darrell, Others: Is W-CDMA reeally stymied if ITU cannot in the end endorse a W-CDMA standard because QCOM claims IPR and won't cooperate on reasonable terms? Possible scenario: W-CDMA wins even tho QCOM successfully keeps the ITU from choosing W-CDMA as the 3G standard. W-CDMA (including IDC's IPR) emerges anyway as the de facto standard, without the blessing of the ITU, which decides its hands are tied so it makes no determination of a standard. QCOM wins the battle but very quickly loses the war. I find it quite interesting that the ITU 3G negotiations continue unabated in spite of the intransigence of QCOM. Instead of the ITU saying, "W-CDMA is out because one of the parties (Qcom) says it will contest the use of its IPR unless the 3G is dummied down to make it compatible with their 2G products," the parties instead are working diligently "on a parallel track" while the IPR battle rages. The parties must want a 3G standard based on W-CDMA very badly and must be making progress toward getting an agreement on their own. The ITU is providing the umbrella now for the negotiations, even tho it will not be possible for it to give its blessing to the 3G standard which emerges. The parties know they probably wouldn't be getting this far without the ITU umbrella, so they are using it as long as they can. Right now, the Europeans and Americans (except QCOM) are very possibly working out the details of a W-CDMA 3G standard that ETSI can endorse on its own authority, as can the American bodies (W-CDMA/NA & WIMS W-CDMA) which recently coalesced around a WP-CDMA proposal (including IDC's IPR) - and can be joined by an Asian regional group. Instead of an official ITU standard, there could be an ETSI-North American-Asian jointly negotiated standard. ITU bows out at that point because it can't legally endorse it. The new 3G is based on some technology that allows a reasonable case to be made that it does not require QCOM's IPR. The ETSI/NORTH AMERICAN/ASIAN groups decide to let the courts eventually decide the issue if QCOM wants to sue them. That would take years - and in the meantime, the de facto new WP-CDMA standard, endorsed by all the big players except QCOM, takes over the intl. market. Everybody gets what they want except QCOM. Just a scenario, but it makes sense to me since the parties are working so hard to achieve a de facto 3G W-CDMA standard without QCOM, if need be. ITU accomplishes its purpose (an intl. 3G standard based on mutual cooperation to achieve the very best technology) even if its name is not associated with the final standard. Feasible scenario? Bill