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Unsure on W-CDMA intellectual property
September 10, 2002
The launch of Europe's 3G mobile phone services, hampered by technical
glitches and financing issues, could face further problems due to
uncertainty over the licensing of intellectual property, officials
warned.
Irwin Jacobs, chief executive of Qualcomm, said that the complexity
of licensing intellectual property related to W-CDMA, the 3G standard
that has been adopted in Europe, could become another obstacle to
the early spread of 3G services.
"There are many companies that have, in the design of the [W-CDMA]
standard, included their own intellectual property. The total royalty
on that [W-CDMA] equipment is unknown at the time," he said.
Qualcomm holds critical intellectual property rights related to
W-CDMA, but its main focus is on the competing CDMA2000 standard,
which is being adopted in the US and parts of Asia, and the company
has frequently voiced criticism of W-CDMA technology.
However, Mr Jacobs' concerns about royalties are being echoed increasingly
by other companies, including NTT DoCoMo, which uses the W-CDMA
standard for its FOMA 3G service.
The issue of intellectual property used in the W-CDMA standard
involves so many companies that "it has become a political toy",
the company said.
Brian Kearsey, director general of the 3G3P, a company set up by
the mobile industry to provide a central evaluation service for
W-CDMA patents, agreed that too many companies were trying to cash
in.
"A few companies made good money from GSM patents, so when 3G research
began in 1986, everyone wanted to get their fingers in the gravy.
A lot of owners see it as an opportunity to become millionaires,"
he said.
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