Paris, June 18, 2002 – Alcatel (Paris: CGEP.PA and NYSE: ALA) scored an important victory before the Board of Appeals of the European Patent Office [Decision number T 0054/01] in respect of the European patent EP 297616. The patent EP 297616 relates to and has a broad applicability to, amongst other things, multimode GSM and CDMA handset terminals, ie handsets capable of accessing more than one type of network.
The patent was filed back in 1988 covering most European countries. In view of the early date of this invention, it is not limited to particular types of network. It does however have particular applicability to next generation 3G and 2.5G handsets having back compatibility to access GSM networks.
It has been under opposition since its grant in 1993 from Bosch who had sought the complete revocation and annulation of the patent, on the grounds that the invention was obvious at the date of filing of the patent.
The patent survived a first decision of the Opposition Division of the European Patent Office in October 2000. This decision was appealed by Bosch who continued to demand the revocation of the patent. The appeal has now been thrown out on all its points and the patent maintained. No further appeal is now possible.
Given the importance of patents and intellectual property rights in general in the field of 3G handset terminals, and the broad scope of this patent, the present victory has considerable consequence in confirming the value of the patent portfolio of Alcatel in this field.
Today, Alcatel has a patent portfolio comprising over 23.000 patents and
applications filed worldwide. Alcatel also has an established and
successful active licensing policy, which was put in place four years ago as part of a drive to maximise the value of its considerable IPR assets.
About Alcatel
Alcatel designs, develops and builds innovative and competitive
communications networks, enabling carriers, service providers and
enterprises to deliver any type of content, such as voice, data and multimedia, to any type of consumer, anywhere in the world. Relying on its leading and comprehensive products and solutions portfolio, stretching from end-to-end optical infrastructures, fixed and mobile networks to broadband access, Alcatel's customers can focus on optimizing their service offerings and revenue streams. With sales of EURO 25 billion in 2001 and 99,000
employees, Alcatel operates in more than 130 countries. For more
information, visit Alcatel on the Internet: http://www.alcatel.com.
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