English Quiz 191

(English Quiz 191)

1. Qualcomm has grown into a $7.5 billion company in part by licensing a broad set of chip and software patents that incorporate two important phone-signal protocols, CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) and the more recent CDMA2000. These technologies have, historically, been used in about 20% of the world's mobile phones. But much of the industry, including Nokia, is now moving to 3G phones that draw on a version called WCDMA (the w is for Wideband). It is the level of Qualcomm's contribution to WCDMA that is at the heart of the Nokia-Qualcomm fight. "Qualcomm is perceived as a company that abuses its superior IPR position in order to make supernormal profits," says Nomura analyst Richard Windsor in London, who predicts that Qualcomm will prevail in the Nokia standoff because of historical precedents in patent cases. "It shouldn't be that Qualcomm dictates to the rest of the industry what the economic structure is," says Nokia cfo Simonson. "Nokia's battle with Qualcomm is part of this, but it's really Qualcomm versus the industry." Indeed, it is. Some of the world's leading mobile operators — including Vodafone, Orange, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile, Holland's KPN, China Mobile and Japan's NTT DoCoMo — have banded together in a group called the Next Generation Mobile Network (ngmn) to try to figure out how best to develop phones that handle high-speed Internet access. High on their action list is a call for "much greater transparency and predictability of the cost of IPR," they say in a 60-page white paper. Though they do not mention Qualcomm by name, their primary target seems obvious. They lace the document with references to an IPR regime they say doesn't work because licensors no longer abide by "fair and reasonable" practices used in cellular's earlier days.
Q: 試翻 "High on their action list ... a 60-page white paper."

2. Qualcomm CEO Jacobs insists his company is not a culprit. Qualcomm is good for the industry, he says, because its ready-made chipsets bring together a cornucopia of industry-leading designs from a variety of companies that allow vendors to bring new products to market quickly. This in turn leads to further innovations. Jacobs has been on a globetrotting mission meeting with the world's leading mobile operators to convince them. "I've spent a lot of time explaining how it works," he says. Are they buying it? "I'm not going to tell you that everyone believes what I believe," says Jacobs. But he adds, "I feel like time is on our side." Vodafone, Sprint, Orange, T-Mobile and the ngmn all turned down requests to talk to Time about IPR, Qualcomm and Nokia. Hamid Akhavan, chairman of the ngmn and CEO of T-Mobile International, said in an e-mail that "IPR discussions re ngmn are at a sensitive stage," adding that things will become more clear "later in the year when the IPR issue has become more stable." An ngmn spokeswoman said the group could say more in mid-April (when, perhaps not coincidentally, the deadline in the Nokia-Qualcomm standoff will have passed).
Q: 試翻 "Qualcomm is good for the industry, ... to market quickly."
Q: 試翻 "Jacobs has been on a globetrotting mission ... to convince them."

3. Even if the Nokia-Qualcomm row ends amicably for now, similar high-profile clashes may be on the horizon. In a meeting with financial analysts last summer, Ed Zander, CEO of handset maker Motorola, articulated a strategy of "owning our own IPR and controlling our future." Motorola had just invested in WiMax, a nascent wireless technology that threatens conventional cellular technologies. Although Motorola subsequently agreed to use Qualcomm WCDMA chipsets, the WiMax initiative could flag Motorola's intention to play nice with Qualcomm for now, while charting greater IPR independence via WiMax in the future. But if Motorola or any other mobile company thinks that a WiMax future will free them of commitments to Qualcomm, they should think again. "Any form of mobile WiMax has our technology in it," CEO Jacobs says. Could that portend an eventual legal fracas with not just Motorola but also WiMax's most vocal supporter, microprocessor giant Intel? "Intel is using Qualcomm intellectual property, and I'm sure Intel would take the position we're using their intellectual property," says Qualcomm's chief counsel Lou Lupin. "It's one of those situations that will likely work itself out over time." Qualcomm vs. Intel? That would make a rollicking sequel to Qualcomm-Nokia. With all the disputes, and with over a billion phones expected to ship this year, two things remain certain. The mobile industry will remain a vital driver of the world economy — and an even more vital driver of the legal profession.
Q: 試翻 "Even if the Nokia-Qualcomm row ... on the horizon."