Qualcomm announced Thursday that the company has acquired a patent portfolio from HP and smartphone maker Palm to deepen its roots in the mobile computing technology.
Qualcomm, a leading cell-phone chip maker, has bought a portfolio of over 2,000 patents from HP and smartphone maker, Palm. The portfolio comprises of about 1,400 granted and pending patents in the U.S. and about 1,000 granted and pending patents in other foreign countries. It covers technologies that include fundamental mobile operating system techniques, the chip maker said in a press release, Thursday.
The acquisition enhances Qualcomm's patent portfolio and will offer more value to current and future licensees. The company is not interested in entering the smartphone market with its own product any time soon, but Qualcomm has shown interest in smartphone-related products besides its popular Qualcomm mobile processing chips. The company recently launched Qualcomm Toq, a smartwatch compatible with Android devices that comes with an expensive $349 price tag.
Qualcomm's interest in Palm patents is surprising as HP was not quite successful in its bid with the $1.2 billion purchase of Palm in 2010. The PC-maker entered the smartphone and tablet market with Palm's integrated operating system but after efforts to push enough devices failed, HP moved to Google's Android platform and most recently to Windows Phone OS for its tablet range.
LG developed interest in Palm's most recent mobile operating system, webOS, and purchased it from HP to integrate the software in Internet-connected smart TVs.
Qualcomm, however, did not disclose details on how it plans to benefit from Palm's patents. It could also be that the company wants to stay away from legal troubles and expanding patent portfolio is the best way to introduce new technology. The financial details of the patent acquisition were not disclosed.
