GSM licensing is apparently pretty layered.
Chipset - The chip maker pays for patents related to hardware alone. Those are included when you buy each chip, but only them.
Broadband software - The chip needs DSP/etc software to run on it. So you usually pay for a license to use/modify code from one of a handful of baseband code providers. Can be fixed fee or per-handset, but usually both ways (reportedly Apple did the latter). Again, this is just for the code.
The final product - Just because you bought a chip and software for it, you're not home free, unless the baseband provider has also agreed to pay GSM license fees on your behalf. In Apple's case, they apparently did not. Thus Apple is on the line for those. (*)
If you want a simple analogy, consider Apple's lawsuits about their patent for visual rubber-banding at the end of a screen. Just because you bought a touchscreen and controller chip, and paid someone to do the UI, does not mean you don't also owe Apple if you implement the rubber-banding.
Verizon paid about $6 per EVDO device to get past the Broadcom patent a few years ago. If Nokia is asking similar, it's in line at least.
(*) Another example: there's an open source implementation of GSM code for voice and texting. But the code doesn't buy you GSM rights. Read here for a mind-bending explanation of using this "free" software.
Chipset - The chip maker pays for patents related to hardware alone. Those are included when you buy each chip, but only them.
Broadband software - The chip needs DSP/etc software to run on it. So you usually pay for a license to use/modify code from one of a handful of baseband code providers. Can be fixed fee or per-handset, but usually both ways (reportedly Apple did the latter). Again, this is just for the code.
The final product - Just because you bought a chip and software for it, you're not home free, unless the baseband provider has also agreed to pay GSM license fees on your behalf. In Apple's case, they apparently did not. Thus Apple is on the line for those. (*)
If you want a simple analogy, consider Apple's lawsuits about their patent for visual rubber-banding at the end of a screen. Just because you bought a touchscreen and controller chip, and paid someone to do the UI, does not mean you don't also owe Apple if you implement the rubber-banding.
Verizon paid about $6 per EVDO device to get past the Broadcom patent a few years ago. If Nokia is asking similar, it's in line at least.
(*) Another example: there's an open source implementation of GSM code for voice and texting. But the code doesn't buy you GSM rights. Read here for a mind-bending explanation of using this "free" software.
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