Nokia, Huawei sign W-CDMA patent licensing deal

Nokia, Huawei sign W-CDMA patent licensing deal
By John Walko, CommsDesign.com
March 10, 2003 (4:53 p.m. EST)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20030310S0006

HELSINKI, Finland — Nokia and Chinese communications supplier Huawei Technologies have inked a patent cross-licensing agreement covering the manufacturing and sales of W-CDMA infrastructure equipment globally.

The deal gives both companies access each other's Intellectual Property (IP) covering the W-CDMA standard at what they describe as 'a very competitive royalty rate'.

Nokia says the agreement demonstrates its commitment to partnering with local suppliers in promoting WCDMA technology in China through lowering the threshold of technology transfer. It is also an important milestone for Chinese vendors to enter into international cross-license practices for the global W-CDMA market.

W-CDMA has been adopted as the 3G technology standard by the majority of the world's mobile operators, and several of the operators planning 3G networks in China are planning to adopt this air interface standard.

" We are very happy to cooperate wi th Chinese vendors like Huawei on this kind of agreement. It represents an important beginning of a process to make state of the art technologies available to more and more domestic manufacturers. Nokia is very happy to be in a position to be part of this process. Eventually, the benefits from this agreement will reach all the members of the industry in China," said David Ho, Vice President of Nokia Networks China.

Xu Zhijun, vice president of Huawei Technologies, said while the company is building up its own IP portfolio in mobile technologies, it is also "keen to co-operate [on IP issues] with world leading manufacturers like Nokia. The WCDMA patent cross-license agreement between the two companies demonstrates our strong commitment to WCDMA."