INTERDIGITAL LAND BIG FISH NOKIA IN ARBITRATION: After having patent spats with Sony/Ericsson, Samsung and other companies over its portfolio of patented technologies covering 2G, 2.5G and 3G standards, InterDigital announced that the Arbitral Tribunal operating under the auspices of the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) has delivered its Final Award in the arbitration proceeding, where royalty rates were established for Nokia's sales of covered products for the period beginning January 1, 2002 through December 31, 2006 and reflect Nokia's leading market position.

The final tab? InerDigital pegs it at $232-252 million.

Based on the royalty rates established by the Tribunal, InterDigital estimates that Nokia's royalty obligations for covered infrastructure and handset sales from January 1, 2002 through December 31, 2003 will be approximately $112 million.

In addition, InterDigital estimates that royalty obligations for covered infrastructure and handset sales for the period January 1, 2004 through December 31, 2006 will be in the range of $120 million to $140 million depending upon whether Nokia avails itself of a prepayment option for the eighteen month period from July 1, 2005 through December 31, 2006.

Yow - that's big. There is however, the issue of Nokia's pending litigation in Delaware, where Nokia is trying to invalidate InterDigital's portfolio with regard to the 3G technology.

As far as I can tell, most of the challenges to InterDigital's portfolio to date have proved unsuccessful. Where art thou, USPTO reexamination?