Industry leaders NTT DoCoMo, Ericsson, Nokia and Siemens today reached a mutual understanding to introduce licensing arrangements whereby essential patents for W-CDMA are licensed at rates that are proportional to the number of essential patents owned by each company. The intention is to set a benchmark for all patent holders of the W-CDMA technology to achieve fair and reasonable royalty rates.

 

The companies together own the clear majority of the essential Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) relevant to the W-CDMA standard selected already by about 110 operators worldwide. This arrangement would enable the cumulative royalty rate for W-CDMA to be at a modest single digit level.

 

The above companies also own a significant number of the essential patents applicable to the CDMA2000 standard. These patents will be licensed at fair and reasonable terms.

 

As essential patent holders, Japanese manufacturers Fujitsu, Matsushita Communication Industrial (Panasonic), Mitsubishi Electric, NEC and Sony Corporation have also expressed their willingness to co-operate with such arrangements.

 

“It is of the utmost importance for the mobile communication industry and in the interest of both licensors and licensees that the cumulative royalty cost of W-CDMA is maintained at a competitive level which encourages both greater growth and innovation in the industry,” says Lothar Pauly, board member of the Siemens Information and Communication Mobile Group. “As we - the major IPR holders – make our patents available we ensure that W-CDMA stays an open and globally acceptable technology."

 

“This initiative means that cumulative royalty rates of W-CDMA are kept at a healthy level. For example according to the recent developments in China the cumulative royalty rate seems to remain even under our earlier targetted cumulative 5% level. This makes the W-CDMA standard safe to invest in for operators, manufacturers and application developers,” says Yrjö Neuvo, Executive Vice President of Nokia. “We can see the IPR initiative gaining support amongst the industry, and encourage others to join.”

 

“W-CDMA is the standard selected by most operators in the world for their future business, and with this initiative we believe the cumulative royalty will be even lower for W-CDMA than GSM, which has enjoyed unrivalled success compared to any other standard in the world says Torbjorn Nilsson, Senior Vice President Marketing & Strategic Business Development of Ericsson.

 

“This initiative is meaningful for promoting the W-CDMA services by keeping cumulative royalty rate below 5%,” says Kota Kinoshita, Executive Vice President of NTT DoCoMo. “We have discussed through the 3G Patent Platform Partnership (3G3P) how to license essential patents at acceptable royalty rates.  We believe the intent of the arrangement is well harmonized with that of 3G3P.”

 

The W-CDMA standard is developed by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). In the 3GPP standardization process the declaration of essential IPRs is mandatory. The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) and the Association of Radio Industries and Businesses  (ARIB) in Japan maintains an updated list of IPR declarations for 3GPP.

 

NTT DoCoMo is the world’s leading mobile communications company with more than 44 million customers. The company provides a wide variety of leading-edge mobile multimedia services. These include i-mode®, the world’s most popular mobile internet service, which provides e-mail and internet access to over 35 million subscribers, and FOMA®, launched in 2001 as the world’s first 3G mobile service based on W-CDMA. In addition to wholly owned subsidiaries in Europe and North and South America, the company is expanding its global reach through strategic alliances with mobile and multimedia service providers in the Asia-Pacific, Europe and North and South America. NTT DoCoMo is listed on the Tokyo (9437), London (NDCM), and New York (DCM) stock exchanges. For more information, visit www.nttdocomo.com

 

Nokia is the world leader in mobile communications. Backed by its experience, innovation, user-friendliness and secure solutions, the company has become the leading supplier of mobile phones and a leading supplier of mobile, fixed broadband and IP networks. By adding mobility to the Internet Nokia creates new opportunities for companies and further enriches the daily lives of people. Nokia is a broadly held company with listings on six major exchanges.

 

Ericsson is shaping the future of Mobile and Broadband Internet communication through its continuous technology leadership. Providing innovative solutions in more than 140 countries, Ericsson is helping to create the most powerful communication companies in the world. Read more at www.ericsson.com/press

 

The Siemens Information and Communication Mobile Group (Siemens mobile) offers the complete range of mobile solutions including mobile devices, infrastructure and applications. Devices include mobile phones, wireless modules, mobile organizers and cordless phones as well as products for wireless home networks. The infrastructure portfolio includes GSM, GPRS and 3G mobile network technologies from base stations and switching systems to intelligent networks, e.g. for prepaid services. Mobile Applications cover end-to-end solutions for Messaging, Location Based Services or Mobile Payment. You can access further information about Siemens mobile on the Internet at www.siemens-mobile.com

 

 

Mariko Hanaoka

Public Relations Department

International PR

NTT DoCoMo, Inc.

Tel:  +81-3-5156-1366           

Fax:  +81-3-5501-3408

e-mail: press_dcm@nttdocomo.com

website: http://www.nttdocomo.com

 

Ericsson Corporate Communications

Peter Olofsson, Director Public Relations
SE-126 25  Stockholm

Phone: +46 8 719 1880, +46 70 267 3445

E-mail: peter.olofsson@lme.ericsson.se

 

Communications Department, Nokia Networks

Tel. (Int.) + 358 (0) 7180 38195

E-mail nokia.networks@nokia.com

 

Press Office Siemens Information and Communication Mobile

Martina Kniep

D-81739 Munich

Phone.: +49-89 636-43133; Fax: -53484

E-mail: martina.kniep@siemens.com