Qualcomm Takes Hit in FTC Case, Must License Modem Patents to Competitors

[Lucian Armasu]

Federal court told Qualcomm to begin sharing its patents with competitors, as agreed upon under FRAND terms when the LTE technology was chosen as an industry standard.

Qualcomm Takes Hit in FTC Case, Must License Modem Patents to Competitors : Read more

 

[ITFT]

So you develop something big and popular and then must give it pretty much for free to greedy companies like Apple so they can sell their iPhones which cost a fortune and make even more cash? While Qualcomm is struggling to make any profits at all and just finished it's financial year with a loss of nearly 5$ bln... what a joke.

 

[avatar28]

Qualcomm had the option to not submit their patent for use in the standard. The thing about standards is that they are, well, standard so everyone who wants to make something compatible has to license all the patents that make it up. FRAND requirements are used to keep the cost reasonable. A company could not include their patents but then they might just be able to license it to a handful of companies for whatever thousands or millions that company is willing to pay. On the other hand, if you get your patent into the standard you might only get, say, $0.50-1.00 per device but you're getting it for tens of millions of devices so you end up making a lot more money in the long run.

Qualcomm agreed to the FRAND terms to get their patent included and now that they have a virtual monopoly on the technology they are trying to renege.

 

[bit_user]

So you develop something big and popular and then must give it pretty much for free

I think it's more like: if you want your tech to be used in a communication standard, then you have to agree to sell it on fair and reasonable terms. You can't just decide, once everyone is locked into using it, that you want to use it as leverage to force-feed licensees your other products or to charge extortionate prices for it.

It's not as if they weren't an active participant, in all of this. Qualcomm put forth their tech for use in current standards, knowing full well the expectations that came along with it. The picture you paint is as though they're an innocent victim.