LM Ericsson Telephone Co. (ERIC) said Tuesday that it withdrew its complaint to the European Commission regarding Qualcomm's WCDMA (3G) licensing activities. However, the company said it would continue its ongoing dialogue with competition authorities around the world with regard to Qualcomm's licensing practices.
In October 2005, Ericsson, Nokia (NOK), Broadcom (BRCM), Panasonic (PC), NEC and Texas Instruments (TI) filed coordinated complaints alleging that Qualcomm was violating antitrust laws and breaching its own commitments to standard-setting bodies to license its declared essential patents on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms. The companies also filed economic evidence that Qualcomm's conduct has caused mobile phone users to pay billions of Euros in unnecessary costs.
Ericsson's Vice President and Head of General Counsel's Office Nina Macpherson said, "Ericsson has cooperated with the European Commission's four-year investigation to ensure consumers in Europe do not pay higher prices because of Qualcomm's unfair licensing practices. Our goal remains the same: To prevent any patent owner from distorting competition and extorting unreasonable, excessive royalties that reflect neither patent value nor R&D investments in the standards concerned."
Antitrust authorities in other jurisdictions have also initiated investigations against Qualcomm, Ericsson said. As a result, the Korean Fair Trade Commission imposed orders concerning Qualcomm's restrictive practices and imposed a hefty fine on Qualcomm, while the Japanese Fair Trade Commission ruled that Qualcomm has engaged in licensing practices in breach of antitrust laws. Japanese Fair Trade Commission ordered Qualcomm to cease and desist certain licensing practices, in particular, from extracting inadequately remunerated licenses from its licensees.
ERIC closed Monday's regular trade at $10.15, up from the previous close of $10.10, on 5.06 million shares.
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