Replies to post #993 on Qualcomm Inc (QCOM)

[richbloem]

Rob, do you understand the statement?? I certainly do. The statement was simply another way to say "70% of the world has chosen UMTS and we chose CDMA---How silly of us". He insinuates that if they would have chosen UMTS at the time they chose CDMA they would be far ahead of the world.

What he doesn't say, is "God, I wish I had 16 minutes left to edit my message".

[Data_Rox]

ROF Rob ....really? Wonder when the ETRI was whining about Qualcomm and CDMA...they have a habit of doing it every now and then, but know that Qualcomm and CDMA helped transform Korea from a "backward state".

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ETRI collects $100 mil. in royalty sharing from Qualcomm

THE KOREA HERALD

March 17, 2001, Saturday

By Shin Hye-son Staff reporter


The Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) announced yesterday that it has collected $100,255,530 from Qualcomm, a world-renowned U.S. telecom company, in royalty sharing for CDMA (code division multiple access) technology.

According to officials receiving more than $100 million in royalties from foreign companies is unprecedented.

According to ETRI, the payment is part of royalties that Qualcomm collected from domestic wireless operators between 1996 and 2000 in return for using its CDMA technology. The payment came after the Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce and International Court of Arbitration (ICC/ICA) ruled last December that Qualcomm should share part of its royalties with ETRI because the latter made a great contribution toward commercializing the CDMA technology.

Under the ruling, ETRI expects to collect another $120 million from Qualcomm by 2008.

Royalty sharing is not fees for technology use but a reward for the contribution that ETRI had made in joint research and development efforts to commercialize the CDMA source technology owned by Qualcomm.

Officials said that the payment is considerable given that domestic companies received a total of $200 million in royalties for technology from overseas last year.

"We underwent a lot of ordeals before winning at an international arbitration court and collecting the payment for royalty sharing from Qualcomm. I hope that it will be remembered as a case to emphasize the significance of intellectual property rights and research and development (R&D) once again," said ETRI Director Chung Sun-jong.

"With the royalty sharing, the nation has become able to offset some of huge royalties that domestic companies have paid to Qualcomm. Besides, the event will set a new order in the CDMA royalty system," he said.

Back in May, 1991, ETRI signed an agreement with Qualcomm, who possessed the CDMA source technology, to join forces to develop the CDMA technology for commercial use in an effort to promote the nation's wireless telecom technology sector, which was then in a backward state.

Under the contract, Qualcomm was to pay 20 percent of royalties it collects from Korean companies to ETRI for 13 years in the form of royalty sharing.

However, the U.S. company arbitrarily interpreted the agreement and excluded revenues from PCS (personal communication service) operators and paid only 11 percent of royalties it had collected from cellular operators since 1997 when the Korean CDMA royalty payment drastically increased with a dramatic growth of the domestic wireless telecom industry.

Meanwhile, ETRI said that it will spend the money from Qualcomm on developing the basic and infrastructure research sector, securing intellectual property rights and purchasing and establishing R&D equipment and facilities.

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