SAN DIEGO—Qualcomm Inc. refuted claims made in a Korean newspaper that certain Korean manufacturers’ royalty obligations will expire in 2006 for sales within Korea and in 2008 for sales outside Korea.
Qualcomm said The Korea Times apparently is reporting details of an old agreement that has since been amended and extended with each manufacturer.
The Korea Times reported in December that Korean manufacturers’ royalty obligations to Qualcomm would partially end this year. The paper named Korean vendors Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and LG Electronics Co. Ltd. The paper this week reported the story again with apparent confirmation from an official at the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, which recovers a portion of the royalties from Qualcomm under a joint development agreement. The ETRI official is quoted in the article as saying Qualcomm was scheduled to discontinue sharing royalties with the group this summer and went on to say that Korean CDMA handset makers would be freed from paying royalties to Qualcomm for handset sales in Korea beginning in August.
“Qualcomm has previously disclosed to its investors that its sharing obligations to ETRI under the JDA do expire this fiscal year,” said Qualcomm. “However, the expiration of such sharing obligations under the JDA with ETRI does not in any way effect the royalty obligations of Korean manufacturers. It is unfortunate that an ETRI director apparently has confused the terms of the JDA with ETRI with the terms of our separate license agreements with Korean manufacturers.”
