Mobile reviews and FlashLite news

Forum Nokia has a new dedicated developer discussion board just for Flash Lite and if you’re creating Flash Lite content for Nokia devices (S60 or Series 40 platforms) then check it out. It’s a great resource as there are actual Forum Nokia employees that monitor the forum and answer questions.
In addition there’s also the Adobe Flash Lite for Nokia discussion forum where Adobe employees from the mobile and devices team answer questions.
So there are two community based resources for sharing ideas and finding answers to specific Nokia+Flash Lite related issues. I’ll be spending time in both forums to see what I can share as well as learn.

White Plains, NY, USA - Nokia announced today that a United States International Trade Commission (ITC) judge issued an Initial Determination in favor of Nokia in the action brought by Qualcomm against Nokia alleging patent infringement.  The judge found no infringement or violation by Nokia of the three asserted Qualcomm patents. In addition, it was determined that patent ‘473 was found to be invalid.

‘We are pleased with Judge Luckern’s decision and believe it is consistent with and supported by the facts,” said Rick Simonson, Chief Financial Officer, Nokia. ‘This decision confirms our belief that Qualcomm does not have relevant GSM patents. This is another failed attempt by Qualcomm to mislead both Nokia and the telecommunications industry.’

Qualcomm filed its complaint on June 9, 2006 alleging infringement by Nokia of six Qualcomm patents.  Prior to the hearing, which began on September 10, 2007, Qualcomm voluntarily withdrew three of the six patents from its complaint.  The remaining three patents relate to an invention Qualcomm claims it made when developing CDMA technology. Qualcomm declared the three remaining patents as essential to the GSM standard and subsequently attempted to withdraw its declaration on one of those patents.

Similar patents, relating to CDMA inventions, are at issue in the European and China cases filed by Qualcomm against Nokia.

Qualcomm has yet to prevail in any patent litigation action against Nokia despite it having filed 11 lawsuits around the world over the past two years.

The judge’s Initial Determination will now be forwarded to the full Commission for review.  The Commission is scheduled to make its Final Determination by April 14, 2008.

Nokia is the industry leader in wireless innovation and the development of GSM technologies.  Nokia has built one of the strongest and broadest IPR portfolios in the wireless industry over the last 15 years, including more than 250 GSM declared essential patent families, through extensive investments in research and development.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

It should be noted that certain statements herein which are not historical facts, including, without limitation, those regarding: A) the timing of product, service and solution deliveries; B) our ability to develop, implement and commercialize new products, services, solutions and technologies; C) expectations regarding market growth, developments and structural changes; D) expectations regarding our mobile device volume growth, market share, prices and margins; E) expectations and targets for our results of operations; F) the outcome of pending and threatened litigation;  G) expectations regarding the successful completion of contemplated acquisitions on a timely basis and our ability to achieve set targets upon the completion of such acquisitions; and H) statements preceded by “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “foresee,” “target,” “estimate,” “designed,” “plans,” “will” or similar expressions are forward-looking statements. These statements are based on management’s best assumptions and beliefs in light of the information currently available to it. Because they involve risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from the results that we currently expect. Factors that could cause these differences include, but are not limited to: 1) competitiveness of our product portfolio; 2) our ability to identify key market trends and to respond timely and successfully to the needs of our customers; 3) the extent of the growth of the mobile communications industry, as well as the growth and profitability of the new market segments within that industry which we target; 4) the availability of new products and services by network operators and other market participants; 5) our ability to successfully manage costs; 6) the intensity of competition in the mobile communications industry and our ability to maintain or improve our market position and respond successfully to changes in the competitive landscape; 7) the impact of changes in technology and our ability to develop or otherwise acquire complex technologies as required by the market, with full rights needed to use; timely and successful commercialization of complex technologies as new advanced products, services and solutions; 9) our ability to protect the complex technologies, which we or others develop or that we license, from claims that we have infringed third parties’ intellectual property rights, as well as our unrestricted use on commercially acceptable terms of certain technologies in our products, services and solution offerings; 10) our ability to protect numerous Nokia patented, standardized, or proprietary technologies from third party infringement or actions to invalidate the intellectual property rights of these technologies; 11) our ability to manage efficiently our manufacturing and logistics, as well as to ensure the quality, safety, security and timely delivery of our products, services and solutions; 12) inventory management risks resulting from shifts in market demand; 13) our ability to source quality components and sub-assemblies without interruption and at acceptable prices; 14) Nokia’s and Siemens’ ability to successfully integrate the operations, personnel and supporting activities of their respective businesses as a result of the merger of Nokia’s networks business and Siemens’ carrier-related operations for fixed and mobile networks forming Nokia Siemens Networks; 15) whether, as a result of investigations into alleged violations of law by some current or former employees of Siemens, government authorities or others take actions against Siemens and/or its employees that may involve and affect the carrier-related assets and employees transferred by Siemens to Nokia Siemens Networks, or there may be undetected additional violations that may have occurred prior to the transfer, or ongoing violations that may occur after the transfer, of such assets and employees that could result in additional actions by government authorities; 16) the expense, time, attention and resources of Nokia Siemens Networks and our management to detect, investigate and resolve any situations related to alleged violations of law involving the assets and employees of Siemens carrier-related operations transferred to Nokia Siemens Networks; 17) any impairment of Nokia Siemens Networks customer relationships resulting from the ongoing government investigations involving the Siemens carrier-related operations transferred to Nokia Siemens Networks; 18) developments under large, multi-year contracts or in relation to major customers; 19) general economic conditions globally and, in particular, economic or political turmoil in emerging market countries where we do business; 20) our success in collaboration arrangements relating to development of technologies or new products, services and solutions; 21) the success, financial condition and performance of our collaboration partners, suppliers and customers; 22) any disruption to information technology systems and networks that our operations rely on; 23) exchange rate fluctuations, including, in particular, fluctuations between the euro, which is our reporting currency, and the US dollar, the Chinese yuan, the UK pound sterling and the Japanese yen, as well as certain other currencies; 24) the management of our customer financing exposure; 25) allegations of possible health risks from electromagnetic fields generated by base stations and mobile devices and lawsuits related to them, regardless of merit; 26) unfavorable outcome of litigations; 27) our ability to recruit, retain and develop appropriately skilled employees; and 28) the impact of changes in government policies, laws or regulations; as well as the risk factors specified on pages 12-24 of Nokia’s annual report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2006 under “Item 3.D Risk Factors.” Other unknown or unpredictable factors or underlying assumptions subsequently proving to be incorrect could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Nokia does not undertake any obligation to update publicly or revise forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except to the extent legally required.

www.nokia.com

Broadcom, Ericsson, NEC, Nokia, Panasonic Mobile Communications and Texas Instruments welcome the continuation of the investigation by the European Commission into complaints regarding anti-competitive practices by Qualcomm.  While each company has made an individual complaint, they share concerns about Qualcomm’s practices. The companies believe that these practices are harmful to the mobile telecommunications industry globally and, in particular undermine confidence in standards-setting processes, threaten the supply of WCDMA chipsets, impede innovation, and raise the costs of third-generation (3G) technology and handsets.  As a result, carriers and consumers face higher prices and fewer choices.

The complaints refer to Qualcomm’s breach of European Union (EU) competition law and failure to meet the commitments it made to international standard-setting organisations that it would license its declared essential patents on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms. Without these commitments, WCDMA technology would not have been commercially implemented as part of the UMTS 3G standard in Europe and elsewhere. The companies alleged that Qualcomm has violated EU competition rules by charging disproportionate and discriminatory royalties for its declared WCDMA essential patents. They also stated that Qualcomm violates those rules by trying to exclude competing manufacturers of chipsets for mobile phones from the market and to prevent others from entering. These actions, in addition to breaching the European Union’s competition law, are in breach of Qualcomm’s commitments to standard-setting bodies.

The Commission has decided to allocate priority to the continuing investigation following the lodging of the complaints in October 2005.  The companies welcome this decision and confirm their continued cooperation with the European Commission.

Media Enquiries:

Brunswick

Joanna McDwyer

Tel.  +44 20 7404 5959

Broadcom

Bill Blanning

Tel. +1 949 926 5555

Ericsson

Rob Elston

Tel. +46 8 719 6992

NEC

Chris Shimizu

Tel. +44 20 8752 2794

Nokia

Anne Eckert

Tel. +852 6971 6918

Panasonic Mobile Communications

Mike Takeda

Tel. +49 611 235305

Texas Instruments

Gail Chandler

+1 214 480 6808

Note to editors: The following quotes about the EC’s decision are from each of the companies that filed formal complaints.

Broadcom:  “”Broadcom welcomes the Commission’s decision to continue its investigation of Qualcomm’s practices. The decision underscores the significant policy issues at stake and the importance of ensuring the future viability both of industry standards-setting processes and of a level playing field for competing providers of chipsets and intellectual property in the 3G space, which Qualcomm’s conduct otherwise threatens to undermine. We believe that the EC plays an important role, in our case and others, in ensuring conditions where fair competition helps promote product innovation and technology advancements that ultimately benefit consumers in Europe and throughout the world. The decision demonstrates Europe’s continuing desire to foster a competitive environment that will stimulate continued growth in the global information economy.” - David A. Dull, Senior Vice President, Business Affairs, and General Counsel, Broadcom Corporation.

Ericsson: “The success of a standard depends on the essential patent holders honouring their FRAND commitments. In this case, a single patent holder - Qualcomm - is charging royalty rates much higher than other essential patent owners. If the other patent holders were to do as Qualcomm is doing, royalties could raise the cost of WCDMA handsets considerably - thus raising the prices to consumers. Ericsson is pleased the Commission has decided to continue its investigation of this case.” - Kasim Alfalahi, Vice President, Patent Licensing, Ericsson.

NEC: “NEC welcomes the European Commission’s continuation of its investigation as a step forward in solving the issues raised by Qualcomm’s anti-competitive business practices. NEC will continue to cooperate fully with the investigation by the European Commission.” - Hideyuki Ogata, Vice President, Intellectual Asset Management Unit, NEC Corporation.

Nokia: “The proper functioning of standardization requires that companies whose patented technology is adopted into a standard commit to licence these patents on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms. Breaking these commitments compromises the whole standardization process, stifles innovation and harms consumers. We welcome the European Commission’s continuation of the investigation into Qualcomm’s business conduct.” - Tero Ojanperä, Chief Technology Officer, Nokia.

Panasonic: “Panasonic Mobile Communications fully supports the European Commission’s investigation into Qualcomm’s anti-competitive behaviour and disproportionate royalty rates in the mobile telecommunications sector. It is essential for both current and future standards that companies which commit to license their technologies on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms adhere to those commitments.” - Yoshiaki Tokuda, Director, Intellectual Property Center, Panasonic Mobile Communications Co., Ltd.

Texas Instruments: “We commend the Commission for deciding to continue its investigation.  TI attaches great importance both to IP protection and to the creation of open standards. Where leading technology companies have agreed to contribute intellectual property and inventive genius to a standard, there is no room for exclusionary and discriminatory practices.” - Joseph F. Hubach, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Texas Instruments Incorporated.

www.nokia.com

This is the goal of the new blog : We love open source in S60 java and we are trying to enable more of it in our platform. But It is always interesting to hear your opinions. Why do you think there are not as many mobile java projects? What about converting those existing desktop and enterprise projects to mobile? What are your candidates for converting to mobile?

Espoo, Finland - Nokia announced today the commencement of its defense in the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) hearing process for the action brought by Qualcomm against Nokia alleging patent infringement of three Qualcomm patents. The patents are asserted against certain Nokia GSM/GPRS/EDGE devices.  The hearing in this matter is currently scheduled for September 10 - 24, 2007.

Qualcomm filed its complaint on June 9, 2006 alleging infringement by Nokia of six Qualcomm patents. The ITC subsequently agreed to initiate an investigation on July 10, 2006, however the case was stayed from February 26, 2007 until June 12, 2007.  Since its initial filing, Qualcomm has voluntarily withdrawn three of the six patents from its complaint.  The remaining three patents are all from the same patent family and were declared to be essential to GSM standards by Qualcomm, although Qualcomm has subsequently attempted to withdraw its essentiality declaration to one of the patents.

“Nokia is confident that its products do not infringe any of the patents remaining in this case and that the patents are invalid,” said Carl Belding, Chief Legal Officer, Nokia.  “We look forward to proving that the claims regarding the three remaining patents have no more merit than those already withdrawn by Qualcomm.”

Qualcomm declared the three remaining patents at issue to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) as essential to GSM standards.  In doing so, it made a binding commitment to license those patents on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms.  Despite its obligations Qualcomm is now seeking an exclusionary order, for these declared essential patents, from the ITC.

For the proper functioning of the standardization process, and continued industry innovation, Nokia believes injunctions and exclusionary orders should not be sought or be obtainable for standards essential patents.

Nokia is the industry leader in wireless innovation and the development of GSM technologies.  Nokia has built one of the strongest and broadest IPR portfolios in the wireless industry over the last 15 years, including more than 250 GSM declared essential patent families, through extensive investments in research and development.

About Nokia

Nokia is the world leader in mobility, driving the transformation and growth of the converging Internet and communications industries. Nokia makes a wide range of mobile devices and provides people with experiences in music, navigation, video, television, imaging, games and business mobility through these devices. Nokia also provides equipment, solutions and services for communications networks.

It should be noted that certain statements herein which are not historical facts, including, without limitation, those regarding: A) the timing of product, service and solution deliveries; B) our ability to develop, implement and commercialize new products, services, solutions and technologies; C) expectations regarding market growth, developments and structural changes; D) expectations regarding our mobile device volume growth, market share, prices and margins; E) expectations and targets for our results of operations; F) the outcome of pending and threatened litigation; and G) statements preceded by “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “foresee,” “target,” “estimate,” “designed,” “plans,” “will” or similar expressions are forward-looking statements. These statements are based on management’s best assumptions and beliefs in light of the information currently available to it. Because they involve risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from the results that we currently expect. Factors that could cause these differences include, but are not limited to: 1) competitiveness of our product portfolio; 2) our ability to identify key market trends and to respond timely and successfully to the needs of our customers; 3) the extent of the growth of the mobile communications industry, as well as the growth and profitability of the new market segments within that industry which we target; 4) the availability of new products and services by network operators and other market participants; 5) our ability to successfully manage costs; 6) the intensity of competition in the mobile communications industry and our ability to maintain or improve our market position and respond successfully to changes in the competitive landscape; 7) the impact of changes in technology and our ability to develop or otherwise acquire complex technologies as required by the market, with full rights needed to use; timely and successful commercialization of complex technologies as new advanced products, services and solutions; 9) our ability to protect the complex technologies, which we or others develop or that we license, from claims that we have infringed third parties’ intellectual property rights, as well as our unrestricted use on commercially acceptable terms of certain technologies in our products, services and solution offerings; 10) our ability to protect numerous Nokia patented, standardized, or proprietary technologies from third party infringement or actions to invalidate the intellectual property rights of these technologies; 11) our ability to manage efficiently our manufacturing and logistics, as well as to ensure the quality, safety, security and timely delivery of our products, services and solutions; 12) inventory management risks resulting from shifts in market demand; 13) our ability to source quality components and sub-assemblies without interruption and at acceptable prices; 14) Nokia’s and Siemens’ ability to successfully integrate the operations, personnel and supporting activities of their respective businesses as a result of the merger of Nokia’s networks business and Siemens’ carrier-related operations for fixed and mobile networks forming Nokia Siemens Networks; 15) whether, as a result of investigations into alleged violations of law by some current or former employees of Siemens, government authorities or others take actions against Siemens and/or its employees that may involve and affect the carrier-related assets and employees transferred by Siemens to Nokia Siemens Networks, or there may be undetected additional violations that may have occurred prior to the transfer, or ongoing violations that may occur after the transfer, of such assets and employees that could result in additional actions by government authorities; 16) the expense, time, attention and resources of Nokia Siemens Networks and our management to detect, investigate and resolve any situations related to alleged violations of law involving the assets and employees of Siemens carrier-related operations transferred to Nokia Siemens Networks; 17) any impairment of Nokia Siemens Networks customer relationships resulting from the ongoing government investigations involving the Siemens carrier-related operations transferred to Nokia Siemens Networks; 18) developments under large, multi-year contracts or in relation to major customers; 19) general economic conditions globally and, in particular, economic or political turmoil in emerging market countries where we do business; 20) our success in collaboration arrangements relating to development of technologies or new products, services and solutions; 21) the success, financial condition and performance of our collaboration partners, suppliers and customers; 22) any disruption to information technology systems and networks that our operations rely on; 23) exchange rate fluctuations, including, in particular, fluctuations between the euro, which is our reporting currency, and the US dollar, the Chinese yuan, the UK pound sterling and the Japanese yen, as well as certain other currencies; 24) the management of our customer financing exposure; 25) allegations of possible health risks from electromagnetic fields generated by base stations and mobile devices and lawsuits related to them, regardless of merit; 26) unfavorable outcome of litigations; 27) our ability to recruit, retain and develop appropriately skilled employees; and 28) the impact of changes in government policies, laws or regulations; as well as the risk factors specified on pages 12-24 of the company’s annual report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2006 under “Item 3.D Risk Factors.” Other unknown or unpredictable factors or underlying assumptions subsequently proving to be incorrect could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Nokia does not undertake any obligation to update publicly or revise forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except to the extent legally required.

www.nokia.com