Qualcomm has responded to Nokia‘s announcement that it has filed suit in Europe that Qualcomm patents are exhausted after being used in chips from Texas Instruments. Qualcomm notes it hasn’t seen the complaints, but unsurprisingly declared that Nokia’s claims are meritless. It notes that in prior litigation between Qualcomm and TI the Delaware Supreme Court wrote: “To protect its stream of royalties from the hand set manufacturers, Qualcomm’s licenses with integrated circuit manufacturers deny the licensees any so called ‘pass through rights’ that would otherwise relieve the hand set manufacturers of their obligation to pay CDMA royalties to Qualcomm.” It also notes that Nokia has paid royalties on the patents for years despite using the chipsets. (release)