Nokia and Qualcomm are getting together to sort out their epic legal battles over 3G mobile phone technology but, it seems, Qualcomm may have lost the battle to establish itself as the dominant supplier of technology for next generation 4G mobiles.

The world seems to have given a resounding ‘no’ to Qualcomm’s proposal that it adopt the company’s UMB, Ultra Mobile standard for 4G.

LTE (long term evolution) and WiMAX are two alternatives which are getting wide acceptance in the telecoms community.

"You only get one chance at it," Malcolm Penn, CEO of analysts Future Horizons, told EW. "The more unreasonable you are, the more people dig in to stop you."

In return for wide acceptance of its WCDMA technology for 3G, Qualcomm gave a commitment to international standard bodies that it would license its technology on ‘fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms’.

Since then a raft of telecoms manufacturing companies have made legal complaints that Qualcomm has ignored this condition by demanding IP charges of up to $5 per handset, and giving companies cheap IP deals if they buy its chips.

The chip firm spent over $200m last year, and expects to spend $200m this year, on lawyers’ bills fighting these legal battles.

"It is much smarter if you don’t quite screw people into the ground, and try and get as much as you can without upsetting people," added Penn, "but if you absolutely go for it, and try and take as much as you can, you never get another chance."

Meanwhile Nokia, which decided not to sell CDMA phones in the US to avoid Qualcomm’s claims, is engaged in agreeing proposals to put before a Delaware court over 3G technology IP claims.