The Espoo, Finland-based company made its complaint as the ITC prepares to rule on a complaint made by Qualcomm in July 2006 that Nokia has infringed six of its patents and its handsets should be barred from the US.
The continuing legal spat between the two companies has enriched lawyers worldwide but there is an enormous amount at stake. A cross-licensing deal between the two companies, under which Nokia paid Qualcomm up to $500m a year in royalties, ran out in April with Nokia arguing that a new deal should reflect the number of patents it has filed since the original agreement.
Nokia emphasized that the patents in question did not relate to standards, where there is an obligation to license them to other companies on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (Frand) terms.
Instead it said the patents covered technologies that improve the performance and efficiency of wireless communication devices as well as enabling lower manufacturing costs, smaller product size and increased battery life.
Qualcomm has suffered set-backs on the legal front of late and last week Lou Lupin quit as its general counsel. Handsets containing Qualcomm chipsets are currently barred from the US after the ITC found it had breached Broadcom patents.
