Sweden-based L.M. Ericsson said it has found no reason to believe the current W-CDMA 3G standard chosen by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute would infringe on any valid intellectual property rights claimed by Qualcomm Inc.
In fact, CEO Sven-Christer Nilsson’s comments to the Japanese press two weeks ago concerning Ericsson’s willingness to compromise with Qualcomm on the IPR squabble were taken out of context, said Ericsson late last week in a press release.
Nikkei English News in Japan said Nilsson indicated his company would continue negotiations with Qualcomm and said the company is ready to reach some form of compromise on IPRs. Ericsson did not deny Nilsson’s comments two weeks ago, but now says its chief executive officer was responding to a question about whether Ericsson is willing to pay royalties to American company Qualcomm. Nilsson stated Ericsson always is prepared to pay compensation for valid IPRs based on reasonable terms and that, similarly, Ericsson expects respect and compensation for its IPRs, said the company.
The Nikkei newspaper indicated Nilsson said, “Ericsson is ready to reward Qualcomm for its contribution in developing the CDMA technology and make some kind of compromise.”
“The statements made to the Japanese press were translated from English to Japanese and then back to English,” said spokeswoman Kathy Egan. “There could have been something lost in translation.”
So the battle over 3G technology remains, with Qualcomm pushing for convergence of the GSM-based W-CDMA standard with cdma2000, based on current Interim Standard 95 technology, and using its IPRs to do it.
The International Telecommunication Union is evaluating the 15 3G proposals submitted by organizations and standards bodies around the world. Most of the proposals incorporate some form of W-CDMA technology, but include the cdma2000 standard.
Qualcomm has made it clear it will not grant its CDMA IPRs for the W-CDMA standard unless the standard is converged with cdma2000 to allow for backward compatibility. Next-generation service promises Internet-friendly handsets with sophisticated high-speed data features.
“We’re waiting for Ericsson’s phone call to take the next step forward,” said William Bold, vice president of government affairs with Qualcomm. “It’s absolutely clear we hold [IPRs].”
“We’re saying that we find no reason to believe that the present standard (W-CDMA) would infringe upon any valid IPRs at this time,” said Keith Schank, director of strategic marketing and business development with Ericsson Inc. in New York. “If you start looking at the core of W-CDMA, you’ll see what we’re saying is the truth.”
ETSI said it has recognized that Qualcomm holds IPRs to CDMA, but reportedly is investigating to see whether they are key IPRs. Ericsson is the only major vendor that has not licensed IS-95 technology from Qualcomm. The two have pending lawsuits against each other in a Texas court over CDMA patents. They could go to trial next year.
Dr. Irwin Jacobs, chairman and CEO of Qualcomm, said his company’s patents are not bandwidth specific and cover a variety of areas such as soft handoff between cell sites, rate receiving and power control-areas that are key to making CDMA systems work.
“There are changes introduced to allow other companies’ IPRs to be put in, possibly at the cost of performance,” said Jacobs.
Several European and Japanese carriers plan to test W-CDMA technology using equipment from Ericsson this year. Jacobs said Qualcomm won’t try to stop them.
“We are not planning to take any near-term action,” said Jacobs. “Our hope is that there will be agreements to review the convergence approach, and if that’s the case, there will be no need to take action. The more tests that are run, the more data that can be gathered and used. But if there ends up being no solution in sight, in the longer term, we’d have to reorganize our strategy.”
Ericsson plans to deliver W-CDMA systems to Telecom Italia Mobile in Italy, German operators Mannesmann Mobilfunk and T-Mobil as well as Swedish operator Telia. Japan Telecom, which reportedly has formed a joint venture with AirTouch Communications Inc. and Nissan to bid for 3G spectrum in Japan, is expected to receive an experimental system from Ericsson this year. U.K-based Vodafone plc and U.S. GSM carriers also plan to test systems this year, but have not announced what vendors they plan to use.
NTT DoCoMo in Japan has been working with Ericsson and other vendors on an experimental system. Nokia Mobile Phones announced Friday it successfully completed the first trial call with a Nokia-made W-CDMA terminal on NTT DoCoMo’s trial specification.
