Qualcomm suit kindly asks Nokia to halt US GSM sales
Prior to the BlackBerry / NTP proceedings, we wouldn't have taken these sensational lawsuits very seriously, but it looks like Qualcomm has every intention of getting Nokia to take notice in their ongoing patent dispute. We recently reported that Qualcomm had asked for a halt to sales of Nokia's GSM models in Great Britain; now they're doing the same in the US, filing a lawsuit with the US International Trade Commission to that effect. The suit covers six CDMA patents in total that affect GSM, GPRS, and EDGE; we're guessing that number includes the two patents named in the UK lawsuit, which Nokia claims are covered under a licensing agreement currently in effect between the companies. Meanwhile, a veritable who's-who of the wireless world -- Nokia, Ericsson, TI and others -- are ganging up on Qualcomm in Europe, alleging unfair licensing practices on its WCDMA property. Normally we'd expect a quagmire like this to be tied up in the world's legal systems for years, but the pressure might be on to resolve this one with all haste as Nokia's licensing agreement with Qualcomm expires early next year anyway.
