dsteel, Nokia appears to be throwing everything they can find into the arb process vs InterDigital, and they have to be chapped off over having to pay while Motorola gets what appears to be a free ride on 2G at this point. Maybe Nokia is hoping that the arb panel will give some consideration to discounting the rates SONY/Ericsson agreed to pay InterDigital for 2G after reviewing the Motorola history(???).
My understanding is that Nokia signed a "convenience" license with InterDigital back in 1999. That means they pay the same rates regardless of how many "valid" patent claims are being infringed. All it takes is for one claim of one 2G patent to survive the legal battlefield and be found to be infringed by one Nokia product sale. IMO SONY/Ericsson must have seen at least one 2G claim still standing when they agreed to settle and pay instead of going to trial. And we know that Nokia sold a LOT of products that met the same 2G standard.
So why IS Nokia still making a fuss over how many of those early 2G patent claims InterDigital has remaining after a decade of legal rangling? Nokia is paid up for 2G through 2001. Good bet that InterDigital had some NEW 2G IPR in their portfolio by Jan 1, 2002 to add in with whatever claims survived from the 2G portfolio they had back a decade ago when Motorola went to court.
Maybe Nokia's CEO threw a temper tantrum when Ericsson settled and IDCC shouted that NOKIA and Samsung were going to have to pay even MORE than Ericsson as a result(LOL!), or maybe it's just a delaying tactic(?), they are hoping for a discount(?), or maybe it's just another hard line negotiating ploy to get InterDigital management to cave in and accept lower rates on both 2G AND 3G(?). IMO it's some of all those with the last one being the trump card.
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