Qualcomm, MediaTek Reach WCDMA, CDMA Patent Deal
November 20, 2009
On the heels of the cross-licensing agreements signed separately with Samsung and LG, US-based fabless chipmaker Qualcomm announced on November 19 that the company has entered into a patent agreement with Taiwan-based chipmaker MediaTek, according to a press release by Qualcomm on November 19. Pursuant to the agreement, these two companies will grant each other the right to access patents covering the use of memory chips based on WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) and CDMA technologies. However, the agreement is only valid between Qualcomm and MediaTek and is not transferable and assignable. Therefore, MediaTek's customers will need to sign a separate license deal with Qualcomm to have rights to access any of Qualcomm's patents and vice versa, according to the same source. Furthermore, according to Taiwan's Liberty Times on November 20, MediaTek will not need to pay any license fees to Qualcomm.