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Nortel Joins Qualcomm in Opposition to LTE Patent Pool
Does competition encourage or discourage development of LTE technology?

Last month a group of LTE product developers opted to come together to create a patent pool for the technology. The goal of the patent pool is to reduce competition in the market, prevent lengthy and expensive lawsuits related to infringement and ultimately to get LTE products to the market more quickly. Suspiciously absent from the patent pool was Qualcomm, a company which faced significant losses after various patent infringement cases last year but which is sticking to its guns in favor of allowing individual companies to patent LTE technology. Another manufacturer, Nortel, has now joined Qualcomm in opposition to the patent pool.

Nortel has instituted a one percent royalty rate to handset vendors who license Nortel’s LTE patents, a move which the company claims is designed to reward innovation in the industry. The underlying belief here is that a royalty encourages more rapid development of the LTE technology (which still isn’t even available in handsets). This view is in opposition to the view of the patent pool which believes that sharing information will lead to more rapid development of LTE products. It’s a case of debating whether competition in the industry spurs or stunts innovation and development.

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bgraham2
join:2001-03-15
Smithtown, NY

2 edits

bgraham2

Member

The customer pays for these lawsuits

I guess it is a good idea. There appears to be some sense in not taking from the consumer and giving to lawyers.

I thought years ago IBM published a list of their patents every month or so just so everyone in the computer industry knew what was going on.

I think patent laws are pretty rediculous. Many years ago a company I worked for got sued for patent infringement and the company holding the patent copied something that had been around for at least 6 years prior to their patent being issued. It cost us a tidy amount of money to prove this and had the patent office looked into the literature that we supplied, the patent office could have denied the patent easily.
nasadude
join:2001-10-05
Rockville, MD

nasadude

Member

let the market place work

It’s a case of debating whether competition in the industry spurs or stunts innovation and development.

I vote for that competition thing.

companies seem to be for competition until it involves them.

NOCMan
MadMacHatter
Premium Member
join:2004-09-30
Colorado Springs, CO

NOCMan

Premium Member

Re: let the market place work

Competition has brought us what? Two competing cellular standards that prevent true competition because users just can not take their equipment elsewhere.

Worse all of them make you sign leases with promises of payment if you leave your service.

That's a captive market not a free market.

I can go to any car dealer and get a car because they all drive on our roads. Imagine if one road was for fords only and the other was for toyotas. And that in order to drive on the other road you'd have to buy a new car.
Kearnstd
Space Elf
Premium Member
join:2002-01-22
Mullica Hill, NJ

Kearnstd to nasadude

Premium Member

to nasadude
we need a single cellular standard imo, like TCP/IP but for moble phones. as long as you have the device you can sign up with a provider and they "provision" the phone.
EPS4
join:2008-02-13
Hingham, MA

EPS4

Member

Lawsuits

There's good competition and bad competition- It'd be great to see the handset manufacturers competing on new technologies and on price, but who wants to see them just piling on lawsuits, which for the end consumer really means less choices, since the other choices are delayed or out of the market thanks to suits.
jvanbrecht
join:2007-01-08
Bowie, MD

jvanbrecht

Member

I have nothing against patents...

They serve their purpose, someone or an entity creates something, they should be compensated for it... However, what I do have problems with, is that some patents are so broad, they they encompass entire swaths of particular technologies, and that stifles innovation and competition. I kinda like the idea of a 1% royalty on handsets and such, its not excessive (while I actually do not like qualcomm in general, this is not a bad deal).

I see far more expensive handsets and LTE based technology if all the companies pool their patents, there will be less competition, which means higher prices for the consumers, and potentially less innovation.