'War' Qualcomm-Nokia: Another new round

Qualcomm sued Nokia on Tuesday, citing the world's number one mobile phone manufacturer's breach of its other two mobile technology licenses.

This move, such as adding fuel to the legal battle, has not yet settled down between Qualcomm and Nokia, but also pushed the fight into a new stressful battle.

Two interconnected mobile technologies in this lawsuit by Qualcomm are wireless application technology and voice coding technology. Qualcomm asked the court to prohibit trading of products that infringe on its copyright and claim damages.

This lawsuit also extinguishes all hopes of investors that Qualcomm and Nokia will be able to reach a new agreement before the technology licensing agreement expires on April 9.

" There is no hope Nokia and Qualcomm will reach an agreement before next Monday ," said Ed Snyder, an analyst with Charter Equity Research. " Qualcomm sued Nokia again because it wanted to put more pressure on Nokia when the technology license agreement is coming to a deadline ."

Even if an agreement is reached, Nokia will stop paying for technology usage fees for Qualcomm from April 9. This means that Qualcomm's revenue will be significantly reduced.

The main source of revenue for Qualcomm is from technology license fees. Qualcomm currently has a total of 140 licensing contracts for licensees for telecommunications companies worldwide.

If Nokia succeeds in forcing Qualcomm to reduce technology licensing fees, Qualcomm will suffer a lot more.

" Because if so, that agreement will have a huge impact on the agreements between Qualcomm and other firms ," said Prudential Inder Singh analyst. " Maybe other companies will follow Nokia ."

Previously Qualcomm has sued Nokia in the UK, France, Germany, Italy and China markets for the same reason.

Nokia spokesman said: " Nokia will actively protect its legal rights ."

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