Nokia sought a declaration from the court that Qualcomm's European patents are exhausted with respect to chips placed on the European market by Texas Instruments in light of the 2000 patent agreement between Qualcomm and TI.

The judges said the court did not have jurisdiction to rule on Nokia's claims outside of the Netherlands. They also ruled that Nokia had not presented enough information on the specific patents and licensing agreements.

Nokia and Qualcomm have been in a legal dispute after part of a licensing deal over technology patents expired on April 9, with complaints filed in the U.S., Germany and the Netherlands.

A German court in Mannheim had already dismissed Nokia's case last month.

"We are very pleased with the recent rulings by the Dutch and German courts in dismissing Nokia's patent exhaustion claims, and we are particularly gratified that this ruling highlights that one should view Nokia's fundamental theory of exhaustion with a significant degree of skepticism," said Don Rosenberg, executive vice president and general counsel of Qualcomm."It is obvious that Nokia was trying to weaken Qualcomm's position in our licensing negotiations and they failed."

Nokia reposted that its substantive claim is well founded and is considering appealing decision. It stressed the court dismissed the case based on the scope of claims made by Nokia, rather than the patent issue itself.

Analysts estimate Nokia had been paying Qualcomm about $500 million per year before the patent expiry. Nokia says its patent portfolio is much stronger now than 15 years ago, when the original licensing deal was signed.

By: DocMemory
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