Nokia and Qualcomm's fractious past

Jo Best ZDNet Australia

Published: 02 Oct 2007 09:44 BST

Despite a commercial future that depends on working with each other, the relationship between intellectual property firm and chipset vendor Qualcomm and handset maker Nokia has been fractious at best during recent years.

Here's how the pair have battled it out:

October 2005: Nokia and five other mobile manufacturers call on the European Commission to investigate Qualcomm, claiming the company is behaving anti-competitively and using its patents on 3G to shut out rivals from the market
November 2005: Qualcomm files a suit against Nokia accusing the handset maker of infringing 11 patents relating to the GSM and Edge mobile standards
May 2006: Qualcomm files a patent suit in the UK, saying Nokia has refused to negotiate over renewing GSM and Edge patents set to expire in April 2007
June 2006: Qualcomm says Nokia is engaging in unfair trade practices by importing and selling phones which it alleges infringe six of its GSM patents and asks the US International Trade Commission (ITC) to ban Nokia from importing the devices to the US
August 2006: Nokia asks a Delaware court to "order Qualcomm to... license intellectual property essential to GSM and UMTS technology standards on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms"
February 2007: The judge presiding over the investigation decides to halt the action Qualcomm has initiated against Nokia with the ITC
March 2007: The litigation spreads to Germany and the Netherlands when Nokia files a patent-exhaustion case against Qualcomm in both countries, asking the country's courts to declare that Qualcomm's European patents are exhausted in respect to products placed on the EU market with a Qualcomm licence
April 2007: Qualcomm launches suits against Nokia in Wisconsin and Texas, accusing the phone maker of infringing patents relating to downloading content over a GSM or Edge network. Nokia files patent counter assertions in the same court against Qualcomm for its alleged infringement of six Nokia implementation patents on Qualcomm chipsets
April 2007: Qualcomm files a demand with the American Arbitration Association requesting a ruling that Nokia's continued use of patents which expired in April constitutes an agreement by Nokia to stick to the previously agreed royalty rate
April 2007: Nokia pays Qualcomm $20m (£9.8m) for use of the disputed UMTS patents during the second quarter of the year, and says it will make further payments as appropriate. Qualcomm rejects the offer, saying it is only a fraction of what Nokia had previously agreed to pay
June 2007: Nokia asks a court in Texas to prevent Qualcomm's "unauthorised" use of Brew and MediaFLO implementation patents
August 2007: Nokia asks the ITC to block imports of some Qualcomm chipsets to the US, alleging they infringe its patents.
September 2007: The ITC trial against Nokia commences
September 2007: The European Commission begins an antitrust probe into claims by Nokia and other companies that Qualcomm does not license its 3G patents under "fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory" terms