Licensing litigation ends in a truce for wireless giants

Wireless technology giants Motorola and Qualcomm have announced an agreement to dismiss all claims and counterclaims in a series of patent infringement lawsuits between the companies that began in 1997.

Under the settlement, Qualcomm and Motorola have agreed to leave unmodified the financial terms of their original 1990 royalty-bearing licence agreement for Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) applications, network equipment, chipsets and test equipment.

The agreement ends three years of complex litigation involving seven separate federal court cases alleging claims for patent infringement, breach of the parties' licence agreements, misappropriation of trade secrets and unfair competition. Each company is dismissing its claims and counterclaims against each other and no payments are being made in view of the dismissals.

Mark McKechnie, an analyst with Bank of America Securities, said: "This is a positive move for Qualcomm, Motorola and the industry because it lifts uncertainty and allows both of these companies to move forward."