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Qualcomm's court loss will hurt chancesThe revelation that wireless chip maker, Qualcomm, deliberately mislead an industry standards body over patents it held for H.264 video compression will have serious repercussions. The decision is a major victory for industry rival, Broadcom, and may have serious consequences in other parts of the wireless sector where Qualcomm's IPR and licensing fees are being challenged. An indignant David Rosmann, from Broadcom commented, "The court's findings indicate that this is one of the most serious and egregious cases of standards abuse and litigation misconduct that our industry has ever witnessed." The decision revealed that Qualcomm had failed to produce thousands of relevant documents until after the trial. The outcome won't help Qualcomm in its biggest battle against Broadcom where the International Trade Commission (ITC) has banned the import of handsets utilising Qualcomm's latest 3G chipsets. Qualcomm had hoped that President George Bush might have vetoed the ITC's decision. Now that hasn't happened it intends to appeal and ask for a stay on the import ban. Significantly, Qualcomm also says it is working with customers to develop new software which could get around Broadcom's patents which led to the ban in the first place. Another big beneficiary will be Nokia. The handset manufacturer is disputing the monies which Qualcomm is demanding for use of its patents on W-CDMA and 3G. Nokia is party to a complaint to the European Commission alleging that Qualcomm has engaged in anticompetitive conduct in the licensing of its patents and the sale of its chipsets for mobile wireless devices. The six companies involved in the complaint say that Qualcomm is violating EU competition law but more especially failing to meet the commitments it made to international standards bodies. It has a duty to license its technology on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms. It's the non- discriminatory bit which is important as those who make handsets using Qualcomm's chips could be seen to be getting a better deal than those who don't.The full Inquirer story ... Qualcomm's courtroom loss has serious consequences
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