Nokia Wins UK Patent Spat Against Qualcomm; Commercial Launch of Nokia's N-Gage "In Few Weeks"

Another win for Nokia (NYSE: NOK) in its ongoing patent battle with chipmaker Qualcomm (NSDQ: QCOM). Reuters reports that the UK High Court has ruled in favor of the Finnish handset maker, following Qualcomm's UK bid seeking an injunction to stop Nokia from selling GSM patents that the chip giant claimed Nokia was infringing. Last week, the U.S. International Trade Commission upheld a ruling in Nokia's favor in a similar case in the US. But this clearly isn't the end of it: Qualcomm has sued Nokia over the same patents in Germany, France, Italy and China as well.

Meanwhile...didn't we hear this before? Nokia's head of gaming Jaako Kaidesoja told Reuters that it was "a few weeks away" from a commercial launch of its mobile gaming service N-Gage. The service, which has been delayed twice, and was beta launched in February to owners of its N81 and its N81 8 GB phones, will be released on five phone models. N-Gage is one of Nokia's key services in its drive to become a mobile internet player, and not just a handset maker. Kaidesoja said he did not expect it to be easy, especially as the mobile gaming market has hit a rough spot, and as he reported, "operators are clearly downsizing their content teams and investing elsewhere." Kaidesoja told Reuters (NSDQ: RTRSY), "I think we are looking beyond 2008. It does not mean that N-Gage comes in and ... turns the industry around from day one. It's going to be a long route for us as well." Aside from the N81 and N81 8GB, Nokia's N95, N95 8GB and N82 models will be included at the commercial launch. The N73 will be added soon. Nokia has sold a total of 10-15 million devices of the five models that N-Gage will first be available on. It has sold some 15 million N73s.

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