Claiming that phone maker Nokia has infringed 11 of its patents, as well as one owned by its fully owned subsidiary SnapTrack, Qualcomm Inc. has filed patent infringement allegations against Nokia Corp. and Nokia Inc. in a federal court in San Diego, Calif. The lawsuit includes patents that are essential for the manufacture or use of equipment that complies with the GSM, GPRS and EDGE cellular standards (the GSM family of standards) and other patents that are infringed by Nokia's products. According to Qualcomm, Nokia is infringing its patents by making or selling products in the United States that comply with the GSM family of standards. Hence, the company seeks an injunction against Nokia's continuing sale of infringing products and monetary damages.

"We have been discussing a number of issues with Nokia for some time, including the fact that we have essential GSM patents for which Nokia is not licensed, and we are disappointed that this has resulted in litigation," said Louis M. Lupin, senior vice president and general counsel of Qualcomm. "Until recently, we had been led to believe that these issues might be resolved cooperatively and amicably. However, it now appears that a cooperative resolution of these issues is quite unlikely and we must move forward with the litigation in order to protect our rights and to get these issues resolved."

Six of the patents in the suit against against Nokia were also asserted in the complaint that Qualcomm brought against Broadcom Corp. in July this year.