Nokia and Qualcomm patent arbitration begins: millions at stake, still boring

Looks like that agreement between Nokia and Qualcomm to postpone the dozen or so lawsuits they've filed against each other worldwide while an arbitrator tries to help sort out the mess is starting to bear some fruit -- the two cellphone giants are headed to court in Delaware on Wednesday to start the healing. In essence, Qualcomm says that Nokia still owes license fees on a CDMA agreement that expired in 2007 since it's been using the patented tech, and Nokia says that it doesn't owe anything because it's shelled out over $1B since 2001 and giving Qualcomm any more cash would be unfair. Not surprisingly for these two, it's likely that the outcome here will essentially be a draw, with the judge ruling that Qualcomm can charge whatever it wants, but that Nokia didn't extend the agreement. We'll see how things go, though -- this is just the beginning of what could very well be the early start of close to the end. Video summary of the entire dispute after the break.