QUALCOMM and InterDigital settle CDMA patent-infringement lawsuits.SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 2, 1994--QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on :QCOM QCOM Qualcomm, Inc. (stock symbol) ), InterDigital Communications Corp. (ASE (Adaptive Server Enterprise) A relational DBMS from Sybase that runs on Windows NT/2000, Linux and a variety of Unix platforms. ASE is a comprehensive and robust data management product with a long history dating back to the late 1980s. :IDC) and InterDigital Technology Corp. (ITC ITC (Brit) n abbr (= Independent Television Commission) → Fernseh-Aufsichtsgremium ITC n abbr (BRIT) (= Independent Television Commission) → ) Wednesday announced that they have reached a global settlement, resulting in the dismissal of their respective Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) A method for transmitting simultaneous signals over a shared portion of the spectrum. The foremost application of CDMA is the digital cellular phone technology from QUALCOMM that operates in the 800 MHz band and 1.9 GHz PCS band. ) patent litigation An action brought in court to enforce a particular right. The act or process of bringing a lawsuit in and of itself; a judicial contest; any dispute. When a person begins a civil lawsuit, the person enters into a process called litigation. . ITC had filed a lawsuit against QUALCOMM alleging that certain CDMA products built by QUALCOMM in compliance with IS-95, a North American CDMA digital cellular standard, infringed three of ITC's patents. QUALCOMM had filed a lawsuit against InterDigital alleging that their Broadband-CDMA development activities infringed one of QUALCOMM's patents. Both lawsuits have been dismissed. The settlement covers only CDMA and does not affect ITC's Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) A satellite and cellular phone technology that interleaves multiple digital signals onto a single high-speed channel. For cellular, TDMA triples the capacity of the original analog method (FDMA). ) patent claims regarding GSM, the European Global System for Mobile Communications (communications) Global System for Mobile Communications - (GSM, originally "Groupe de travail Sp?ciale pour les services Mobiles") One of the major standards for digital cellular communications, in use in over 60 countries and serving over one billion subscribers. , or IS-54, the North American TDMA digital cellular standard, nor does it affect ITC's current patent-infringement litigation against Ericsson and Motorola with respect to IS-54. In return for a one-time payment by QUALCOMM of $5.5 million, ITC has granted to QUALCOMM a fully paid, royalty-free, worldwide license to use and to sublicense ITC's existing CDMA patents and certain future CDMA patents to make and sell products for IS-95-type wireless applications, including, but not limited to, cellular, PCS (1) (Personal Communications Services) Refers to wireless services that emerged after the U.S. government auctioned commercial licenses in 1994 and 1995. This radio spectrum in the 1. , wireless local-loop and satellite applications. QUALCOMM has the right to sublicense ITC's CDMA patents so that QUALCOMM's licensees will be free to manufacture and sell IS-95-type CDMA products without requiring any payment to ITC. ITC's patents concerning cellular overlay and interference cancellation are not licensed to QUALCOMM. QUALCOMM has granted to InterDigital a royalty-free license to use and to sublicense the one patent that QUALCOMM had asserted against InterDigital and a royalty-bearing license to use certain of QUALCOMM's CDMA patents in InterDigital's B-CDMA B-CDMA Broadband-Code Division Multiple Access products if needed. InterDigital believes that it will not be necessary to use any of QUALCOMM's royalty-bearing or nonlicensed patents in its B-CDMA system. In addition, QUALCOMM has agreed, subject to certain restrictions, to license certain CDMA patents on a royalty-bearing basis to those InterDigital customers that desire to use QUALCOMM's patents. The license to InterDigital does not apply to IS-95-type systems or to satellite systems. Certain of QUALCOMM's patents, relating to key IS-95 features such as soft and softer hand-off, variable-rate vocoding and orthogonal (Walsh) coding, are not licensed to InterDigital. ``We believe that we do not infringe the InterDigital patents at issue, but we recognize that legal actions can continue for several years through trials and appeals,'' said Dr. Irwin Jacobs, chief executive officer of QUALCOMM. ``This settlement agreement permits us to focus our efforts on commercializing our CDMA products and technology without diverting our attention to time-consuming and costly litigation. QUALCOMM and our licensees can build and sell IS-95-type CDMA equipment around the world without concern for patent-infringement suits by InterDigital.'' ``We are extremely pleased that we were able to resolve our litigation with QUALCOMM in a fair and equitable fashion,'' stated Robert S. Bramson, president of ITC. ``This settlement agreement permits ITC to focus on its current TDMA litigation and its ongoing licensing program. It also permits InterDigital to continue the development and commercialization of its B-CDMA technology for use in wireless local-loop, PCS and satellite applications.'' InterDigital is a world leader in TDMA and B-CDMA technology. Its UltraPhone TDMA digital wireless radiotelephone system is ordered or installed in more than 200 locations worldwide. With headquarters in San Diego, QUALCOMM develops, manufactures, markets, licenses and operates advanced communications systems and products based on its proprietary digital wireless technologies. The company's primary product and development areas are the OmniTRACS system (a geostationary Aligned with the earth. Refers to satellites (GEOs) that travel at the same rotational speed as the earth (they are geosynchronous) and are always the same distance from the earth. See GEO. satellite-based, mobile communications system providing two-way data and position-reporting services), CDMA wireless communications systems and products and, in conjunction with others, the GLOBALSTAR low-earth-orbit (LEO) satellite communications system. Other company products include the Eudora by Qualcomm electronic- mail software, VLSI VLSI: see integrated circuit. (1) (Very Large Scale Integration) Between 100,000 and one million transistors on a chip. See SSI, MSI, LSI and ULSI. (2) (VLSI Technology, Inc., Tempe, AZ, www.semiconductors. components and communications equipment. -0- NOTE TO EDITORS: OmniTRACS is a registered trademark of QUALCOMM Incorporated. GLOBALSTAR is a trademark of Globalstar L.P. Eudora is a registered trademark of the University of Illinois University of Illinois may refer to:
CONTACT: QUALCOMM Incorporated, San Diego
Richard Grannis, 619/658-4817
or
InterDigital Communications Corp.
Susan Sutton, 610/278-7831
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