Jacobs defends Qualcomm patent position

During a keynote address yesterday at the University of Colorado Silicon Flatirons conference on intellectual property Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs told an audience consisting primarily of lawyers and law students that other wireless firms often get upset with Qualcomm for having to pay royalties. However, he says that the company is continually using those royalty payments to reinvest in research and development. "We apply a large part of our royalties to R&D," Jacobs said.

He added that there is no truth to the complaints in the European Union that Qualcomm slows innovation and keeps prices high. "We have a greater degree of competition in the market and handset prices are falling."  He added that foe Nokia, which he called the "ringleader" of the companies that are coming after Qualcomm, has seen its market share increase. "In emerging markets, they [Nokia] control the distribution channels. And they say that we are dominant."

Regarding the commitment from operators to upgrade their networks to technologies such as WiMAX and LTE, Jacobs said that those technologies will just be another radio that they incorporate into their chip sets. However, he also said that LTE is not more efficient than HSPA+ but does offer broader bandwidth. -Sue

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