Qualcomm vs Nokia patent case starts in Britain

The world's top cellphone maker, Nokia said on Monday it was confident it had not infringed the two technology patents U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm had sued it for in Britain.

The case in the British High Court was due to start on Monday. Qualcomm is seeking an injunction that would stop Nokia selling products using the patents in Britain. It was unclear which Nokia products would be affected.

Qualcomm has sued Nokia over the same or similar GSM patents also in the United States, Germany, France, Italy and China. None of the cases has reached a verdict or settlement. "Nokia is confident the facts and the evidence presented at trial will clearly and definitively demonstrate that Qualcomm's alleged GSM patents are invalid and not infringed," Nokia spokeswoman Anne Eckert said.

Qualcomm, which filed the British case in May 2006, was not immediately available for comment. Nokia said it expects the hearings in the case to last approximately three weeks.
The companies have been at legal loggerheads since they failed to renew a key technology licensing pact that expired on April 9. Analysts have estimated Nokia pays around $500 million to Qualcomm annually for patents and wants to cut the sum.

Last week Qualcomm won a round in a different battle with Nokia as a U.S. trade court tossed out a lawsuit asking for Qualcomm chips to be barred from the United States due to pending arbitration.