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Wireless Federation » archive for 'Legal'

MegaFon faces rejection from court (Russia)

  • October 3rd, 2008
  • 11:52 am

The Administrative Panel of the Tbilisi City Court rejects MegaFon’s plea against the fines imposed on the operator by the Georgian National Communications Commission (GNCC) for unlicensed use of radio frequency spectrum within Georgia’s sovereign territory, which was earlier reported by Wireless Federation, “GNCC fines Megafon for illegal operations (Georgia)”.

To read the earlier reported post, click on the following link: http://wirelessfederation.com/news/gncc-fines-megafon-for-illegal-operations-georgia/

   

Telefonica Argentina holds on till October 7 to decide for compensation claim (Argentina)

  • September 17th, 2008
  • 1:11 pm

Telefonica Argentina, considers to keep it’s compensation on hold, for the claim it filed against the government in 2003. The telco had filed a claim of USD2.8 billion for damages in response to the goverment’s restrictions imposed on the telco during country’s financial crisis. Telefonica will be deciding to claim or to maintain the suspension only after October 7.

   

Motorola sues RIM for poaching staff inturn gets sued (USA, Canada)

  • September 9th, 2008
  • 8:27 am

Motorola, the mobile phone manufacturer is planning some action to sue Research In Motion (RIM) after the Motorola claimed that the company had been poaching its staff. The lawsuit was filed last week by Motorola which said that RIM has lured away nearly 40 Motorola employess in Florida since the beginning of 2008. The main concern being the disclosure of confidential Mtot’s industrial secrets.

In papers, Motorola states that Research In Motion has violated a non-solicitation contract the two companies signed. In the filing, Motorola also included copies of email which according to the manufacturer had been sent by RIM to its employees offering jobs. Motorola is already suing RIM for allegedly infringing seven patents.

The mobile manufacturer seeks a token damage of $50,000 (around RM 173,000).
RIM has counter-attacked by suing Motorola for it’s ‘anti-competitive conduct’ by demanding high-priced royalties for several patents Motorola owns.

   

3 UK continues with it’s legal fight with Ofcom (UK)

  • August 22nd, 2008
  • 1:26 pm

3 UK, reportedly, is continuing on it’s legal challenge wherein the regulator Ofcom had ruled it to cut connection charges last year.
According to Ofcom’s rulling in 2007, 3 had to face a 45% cut in mobile termination rates across it’s network by 2011.
If 3 is successful, the operator would be free to raise its charges, although the operator has suggested that it wants mobile termination rates to be cut to zero by all operators.

   

Ofcom delays 3G auction as O2 and T-Mobile challenge the regulator legally (UK)

  • August 7th, 2008
  • 8:46 am

Ofcom, UK, has further delayed the 3G spectrum expansion, as the auction process is being legally challenged by T-Mobile and O2.

Application for spectrum were to be invited in July initially but as now that has been delayed.

The operators were not satisfied with Ofcom’s paln to auction more 3G spectrum.

A statement from the regulator, issued, says: ‘Litigation is currently ongoing and we continue to press for it to be progressed as expeditiously as possible. In the meantime, we have decided that we will not call for applications in September or October 2008.’

   

Sprint slapped with a penalty of $70.1 million (California, US)

  • July 30th, 2008
  • 7:20 am

Sprint, nation’s third carrier, has been slapped with a penalty of $70.1 million, by a California judge. This is a tentative penality for early termination fees charged to subscribers throughout the state, AP reports. The company was ordered to pay $18.3 million to customers who sued over the fees and credit $54.8 million to subscribers that were charged the fee, but never paid.

The issue of ETFs has made its way into federal and state courthouses around the country and the Federal Communications Commission is weighing options it could impose on carriers to regulate the fees and thereby shield them from more class-action lawsuits at the state level. T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon have all committed to reducing the fees on a pro-rated basis over the life of a contract and Sprint said it plans to follow suit next year. The FCC is expected to make a similar industry-wide decision in August.

   

Ex-Seimens manager convicted of corruption (Germany)

  • July 28th, 2008
  • 11:05 am

A former Siemens AG manager has been convicted and sentenced by a Munich state court to two years probation and a $170,000 (euro108,000) fine.

Reinhard Siekaczek, 57, was convicted of breach of trust for his role in a corruption scandal at the industrial conglomerate. He admitted to setting up slush funds while a manager at the ICN fixed-line telephone network division.

Motorola wins the patent lawsuit appeal (US)

  • July 28th, 2008
  • 6:47 am

Motorola has won the patent lawsuit which is related to the use of text messaging in mobile phones.

The ‘112 patent claims a method for communicating text over telephones using vocabularies of “syllabic elements.” The University of Texas System had asserted the ‘112 patent infringement claim against Motorola and over 30 additional handset manufacturers that incorporated text messaging software into their handsets. The University of Texas System claimed that nearly all mobile handsets in the industry infringed the ‘112 patent and it sought several hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.

In affirming summary judgment in Motorola’s favor, the Federal Circuit held that the District Court correctly construed the phrase “syllabic element,” as set forth in the infringement claim, to be limited to character strings of a single syllable in length. The Federal Circuit further held, based on the plain language of the patent, as well as declarations and disclaimers made during the prosecution history, that the ‘112 patent was limited to a vocabulary of only syllabic elements. Because it was undisputed that neither Motorola nor any of its customers used text messaging software with a vocabulary of only syllabic elements, the Federal Circuit held that there was “no substantive dispute regarding the relevant issues of fact” and affirmed the District Court’s ruling of non-infringement.

   

Nokia: Qualcomm GSM patent “invalid”, rules German court (Germany)

  • July 23rd, 2008
  • 12:34 pm

Nokia says the German Federal Patent Court has ruled that a Qualcomm GSM patent asserted in a case against Nokia as invalid.

This is the third court to conclude that Qualcomm’s patent claims against Nokia are without merit.

Qualcomm had filed 11 lawsuits on three continents against Nokia claiming the Finnish firm has infringed its patents in mobile phones based on the widely used GSM technology.

So far the U.S. International Trade Commission and Britain’s High Court have decided the patents have been either invalid or not infringed.

A hearing on the second Qualcomm patent in the German court case is scheduled for October.

   

Nokia and Qualcomm to meet in court over a licensing agreement (US)

  • July 22nd, 2008
  • 9:08 am

Nokia and Qualcomm will meet in court Wednesday to address a licensing fight that involves hundreds of millions of dollars and spans three continents, Reuters reports.

The fight between the two companies has been lengthy, and is based on 1992 licensing agreement that allowed Nokia to use Qualcomm’s patents in its phones. Nokia paid $1 billion during the life of the license, which expired April 9, 2007. But Qualcomm is disagreeing and is now asking the Delaware Court of Chancery to rule that Nokia extended that agreement by continuing to buy its patented products on the same terms. Nokia says maintains the license can only be extended in writing. It’s pretty complicated, but the biggest concern of the industry is that both companies will spend millions of dollars to resolve the issues.