SAN DIEGO (Kyodo) Qualcomm Inc., a leading U.S. designer of mobile phone chip sets, said Wednesday it will file a legal complaint against a Fair Trade Commission order related to licensing deals with Japanese cell phone makers.
"Qualcomm will pursue an appeal before the Japanese courts" if the FTC affirms the order after a "full" evidentiary hearing Qualcomm will seek to have, the San Diego, Calif.-based firm said in a statement after the FTC issued the order.
"In the interim, Qualcomm will seek to have the order suspended or stayed during the pendency of administrative and judicial review," it said.
On Wednesday, the FTC said Qualcomm forced Japanese licensees to accept cross-license provisions without compensation, and a provision under which the makers agreed not to assert their essential patents against other licensees that had agreed to a similar provision.
The FTC thus ordered Qualcomm to eliminate such provisions from its license agreements on the grounds they could undermine the Japanese manufacturers' incentive to engage in research and development and stifle fair competition.
"Contrary to the allegations in the FTC order, none of our Japanese licensees were forced to enter into license agreements with us," said Donald Rosenberg, executive vice president and general counsel of Qualcomm.