diff --git a/drivers/staging/gdm72xx/gdm_wimax.c b/drivers/staging/gdm72xx/gdm_wimax.c
index 0716efc1817de39a0c2711272a4a1312347c92ba..6cb810701a3e87b31733555b97dbae60ea7673f3 100644
--- a/drivers/staging/gdm72xx/gdm_wimax.c
+++ b/drivers/staging/gdm72xx/gdm_wimax.c
@@ -258,12 +258,16 @@ static int gdm_wimax_event_init(void)
 	if (!wm_event.ref_cnt) {
 		wm_event.sock = netlink_init(NETLINK_WIMAX,
 						gdm_wimax_event_rcv);
-		if (wm_event.sock)
-			wm_event.ref_cnt++;
-		INIT_LIST_HEAD(&wm_event.evtq);
-		INIT_LIST_HEAD(&wm_event.freeq);
-		INIT_WORK(&wm_event.ws, __gdm_wimax_event_send);
-		spin_lock_init(&wm_event.evt_lock);
+		if (wm_event.sock) {
+			INIT_LIST_HEAD(&wm_event.evtq);
+			INIT_LIST_HEAD(&wm_event.freeq);
+			INIT_WORK(&wm_event.ws, __gdm_wimax_event_send);
+			spin_lock_init(&wm_event.evt_lock);
+		}
+	}
+
+	if (wm_event.sock) {
+		wm_event.ref_cnt++;
 		return 0;
 	}