Qualcomm and Teleepoch Enter Into a 3G CDMA Subscriber Unit License Agreement, October 6, 2007

MTN chooses Cambridge Broadband Networks for multi-service wireless network in Rwanda, October 6, 2007

Brazilian government to publish 3G bidding rules soon, October 6, 2007

KTF 3G service suffers from technical problems, October 6, 2007

Argentina’s Personal lunches 3G service in Rosario, October 6, 2007

Russia has it's first 3G network, October 6, 2007

AT&T could drop Alcatel-Lucent as 3G mobile network supplier, October 6, 2007

Enea Extends License Agreement with ZTE for 3G Handsets, October 2, 2007

LG to unveil premium handsets in Brazil, October 2, 2007

KTF 3G subscribers doubled in less than 3 months, October 2, 2007

3G policy in India will be non-uniform, October 2, 2007

- previous news

PlatformWCDMA announce patent licensing programme for 3G WCDMA

March 24, 2004

PlatformWCDMA today announced that a group of W-CDMA essential patent holders have reached agreement on the initial licensing terms for a comprehensive W-CDMA Patent Licensing Programme for implementation and use of the 3GPP-defined standards based on the W-CDMA technology for 3G mobile communication systems.

The initial companies associated this initiative are ETRI (Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute), Fujitsu, KPN, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Mitsubishi Electric and Siemens.

PlatformWCDMA invites other self-claimed essential patent holders to submit patents for an evaluation of their essentiality to the 3GPP-defined standards in order to include as much intellectual property as possible within the W-CDMA Patent Licensing Programme.

Each patent in the W-CDMA Patent Licensing Programme is certified as essential by an independent neutral third party body, the International Patent Evaluation Consortium (IPEC), currently grouping together fourteen patent law firms in Asia (China, Japan and Korea), Australia, Europe (France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom) and the United States.

Under the W-CDMA Patent Licensing Programme the party that manufactures 3G products for sale to the end-user is responsible for royalties on the various product categories currently defined below:

1. Terminals (including PDAs and modules)

2. Base Stations (Node Bs)

3. Radio Network Controllers (RNCs)

4. Core Network (3G elements thereof)

5. Test equipment

Within PlatformWCDMA the following activities are currently underway :

- the patent holders are submitting their patents in order to obtain certificates of essentiality to create a worthwhile W-CDMA certified essential patent portfolio (this process will continue throughout the lifetime of the W-CDMA technology and thus, the number of W-CDMA certified essential patents will increase significantly with time) and;

- other claimed W-CDMA essential patent holders are being invited to join the W-CDMA Patent Licensing Programme in order to broaden the availability of the certified essential patent portfolio to prospective licensees;

The W-CDMA Patent Licensing Programme offers, for 3G terminal products, a Joint License Agreement (JLA) grouping together all relevant W-CDMA certified essential patents for those licensors joining this part of the programme. The JLA is being introduced following an identifed marketplace demand. Additional W-CDMA certified essential patents will be added to the JLA as new patent owners join and as more patents are certified as essential. The licensing terms are defined in terms of a fixed royalty for each manufacturered terminal which are guaranteed to remain the same throughout the term of the JLA. It is anticipated that there will be a significant market demand for the JLA and, thus PlatformWCDMA will focus on seeking licensees for terminal products in order to bring about affordable terminals for stimulating 3G service offerings for operators. To assist in the enforcement of the JLA a reserve fund is being created in the anticipation of enforcement actions.

The W-CDMA Patent Licensing Programme is effective from 1 January 2004. Licensees taking a JLA on 3G terminal products prior to the 30 June 2004 will receive a waiver on royalty payments for products sold up to the 30 June 2004 and, moreover, a discount on the royalties payable during the initial three year term.

"Based on recent public announcements by major mobile operators, the commercialisation of

3G systems based on the W-CDMA technology will become increasingly a reality in 2004 and beyond and, the W-CDMA Patent Licensing Programme should assist in making the WCDMA technology an attractive competitive option in the marketplace" according to Brian

Kearsey, Director General of the 3G Patent Platform Partnership (3G3P).

PlatformWCDMA offers the W-CDMA Patent Licensing Programme as a convenience to the marketplace in providing fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) access to essential patents owned by many patent holders. Companies that use the W-CDMA 3GPP-defined standards based on the W-CDMA technology need the essential patent rights the licenses provide; it is the easiest, most cost-effective way to obtain them.

The W-CDMA Patent Licensing Programme is based on the 3G Patent Platform which received antitrust approval from the Japanese Fair Trade Commission, the European Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division during 2002.