ETRI gets $100 mil in royalties from Qualcomm

The Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) announced Friday that it collected over $100 million (128.9 billion won) in royalties from Qualcomm, the U.S. telecom giant, from the use of code division multiple access (CDMA) technology. Officials said it was the first time a Korean firm had collected more than $100 million in royalties from a foreign company.

According to ETRI, the payment was derived from royalties Qualcomm collected from domestic wireless operators between 1996 and 2000 in return for using its CDMA technology. The payment came after the Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce and International Court of Arbitration (ICC/ICA) ruled last December that Qualcomm should share part of its royalties with ETRI because the latter helped commercialize the CDMA technology. Under the ruling, ETRI expects to collect an additional $120 million from Qualcomm by 2008.

The royalties do not represent a fee for technology use but are a sort of reward for contributions ETRI made to joint research and development efforts. Officials said the payment was considerable, given that domestic companies received a combined $200 million in royalties for technology use last year.