Nokia Stay of ITC investigation--Basically, Nokia already used this tactic in the infringement action brought against it by QCOM in California for infringement of nonCDMA patents. Nokia argued that the Qualcomm/ Nokia CDMA License Agreement had an arbitration provision which required an arbitrator to determine whether the patents in issue in the lawsuit were covered by the CDMA license. The district court conducted a full arbitrability analysis and found that the products listed in the Complaint were non-CDMA products and therefore the infringement issues were not related to the agreement. The federal district court judge thereupon dismissed Nokia's request for a stay pending arbitration and Nokia appealed it to the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, which set out the test a court should apply. Under that test, the court should first inquire as to who has the primary power to decide arbitrability under an agreement. If the court concludes the parties did not intend to delegate such decision to an arbitrator, the court should undertake a full arbitrability inquiry in order to be satisfied that the issue involved is referable to arbitration. If, however, the court concludes that the parties intended to delegate such power to an aribrator, then the court should perform a second (and more limited) inquiry to determine whether the assertion of arbitrability is “wholly groundless,” and if not found should stay the trial pending a ruling on arbitrability by an arbitrator.
Under these standards, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit found that the agreement showed the clear and unmistakable intent of the parties to delegate arbitrability decisions to an arbitrator, and that the second and requisite ”wholly groundless” inquiry was not performed by the district court. Therefore, the CAFC vacated and remanded to the district court to make the appropriate inquiry.
Hopefully, the documents in this case will show that Nokia's arbitration request is "wholly groundless" and the case will continue at the ITC.
Also, Nokia's infringement complaint against QCOM at the ITC recently was dismissed because the issue is in arbitration.
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