Qualcomm licensing found to run foul of Korean competition law

Wednesday 18 November 2015

The Korea Fair Trade Commission has started an investigation into Qualcomm's licensing practices. Qualcomm said it received the Case Examiner's Report with allegations and will prepare a response. The report alleges, among other things, that Qualcomm does not properly negotiate aspects of its licences, and that its practice of licensing patents only at the device level and requiring that chip customers be licensed to its intellectual property violate Korean competition law. The report proposes remedies including modifications to certain business practices and monetary penalties. 

Qualcomm said the allegations in the report are "not supported by the facts and are a serious misapplication of law." Its patent licensing practices, used for almost two decades, "are lawful and pro-competitive", the company added. The group said it will mount a defense at the Commission hearings in the hope that the Commission will reject the conclusions of the Examiner's Report. 

The FTC already fined Qualcomm KRW 260 billion (USD 235 million) in 2009 after concluding that it abused its dominant position in selling chips to mobile phone makers in Korea. As part of that case Qualcomm agreed to disclose information that would allow Korean companies to develop software for its chips. 

-Telecompaper