No plans for more Qualcomm suits in EU dispute - CEO

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Qualcomm Inc, which has taken legal action against two of six companies accusing it of anti-competitive behaviour, has no immediate plans to sue the other four, its chief executive said on Thursday.

Late last month, the six companies asked the European Commission to investigate and halt what they said was Qualcomm's practice of selling technology at prices that were too high, charging different prices to different vendors and linking its technology to sales of its chips.

The firms are Nokia Oyj, Ericsson, Broadcom Corp, Texas Instruments Inc, NEC Corp and Matsushita's Panasonic Mobile Communications.

Qualcomm, which already had a lawsuit pending against Broadcom, responded by filing a patent infringement suit last week against Nokia, seeking to force the world's top cellphone maker to stop selling certain products in the United States.

But Qualcomm Chief Executive Officer Paul Jacobs said his company has no immediate plans to further ratchet up the dispute by going after the other four companies that requested the investigation.

"It's not in our current plans" to take legal action against any of the others, he said in an interview. "Qualcomm is not a company that traditionally initiates litigation."

Jacobs said his company only took action against Nokia after the Finnish firm, which had been in discussions with Qualcomm on related issues, joined the group that had requested the inquiry.

"We thought that we were coming to some level of cooperation (with Nokia)," he said. "The complaint was filed without any discussion with us. We felt we should do something to protect our interest."

Qualcomm has become a dominant player in mobile communications through its pioneering work developing a technology known as code division multiple access, or CDMA.

The technology lies at the heart of the smaller of two major global standards for current second-generation (2G) mobile systems. The other standard, known as GSM, was developed in Europe and dominates the industry for 2G mobile systems.

But CDMA is an integral part of both of the major global standards being rolled out for new third-generation (3G) mobile systems, giving Qualcomm a unique position in the industry.

As its clout in the sector grows, many of the companies that license Qualcomm's technology have complained that the firm wields too much power and has used its strong position to engage in unfair business practices.

Jacobs defended his company's behaviour, saying many of the industry's dominant players resent the fact that Qualcomm has actually increased competition in the market by licensing its technology to smaller firms and creating products that help them compete with industry giants.

"To try to portray that we've decreased competition isn't accurate," he said. "We've created a different industry structure. ... It's ironic that claims were made of reduced competition when we've created tremendous competition."

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