Nokia accused

and its subsidiary, SnapTrack, recently filed suit against

and Nokia Inc in federal court in

for infringement of eleven QUALCOMM's patents and one patent owned by SnapTrack.

QUALCOMM says it's lawsuit includes patents that are essential for the manufacture or use of equipment that complies with the GSM, GPRS and EDGE cellular standards (the GSM family of standards) and other patents that are infringed by Nokia's products.

According to a statement, patents that are essential to a standard are those that must necessarily be infringed to comply with the requirements of the standard.

QUALCOMM's complaint alleges that Nokia is infringing QUALCOMM's patents by making or selling products in the United States that comply with the GSM family of standards. QUALCOMM is seeking an injunction against Nokia's continuing sale of infringing products and monetary damages.

"We have been discussing a number of issues with Nokia for some time, including the fact that we have essential GSM patents for which Nokia is not licensed, and we are disappointed that this has resulted in litigation," said Louis M. Lupin, senior vice president and general counsel of QUALCOMM. "Until recently, we had been led to believe that these issues might be resolved co-operatively and amicably.