Tuesday, March 28, 2006

QUALCOMM Files New Patent Suit Against Broadcom

QUALCOMM filed a new complaint against Broadcom charging misappropriation of trade secrets relating to QUALCOMM's development and marketing of WCDMA baseband integrated circuit products and the multimedia capabilities of such products. The suit alleges that Broadcom has used the misappropriated trade secrets to compete unfairly with QUALCOMM for the sale of WCDMA chipsets.



The new lawsuit is the third intellectual property infringement case brought by QUALCOMM against Broadcom. San Diego is the venue of the other two cases as well. To date, QUALCOMM has asserted infringement by Broadcom of ten QUALCOMM patents. The first trial is scheduled to occur in January 2007.

http://www.qualcomm.com

  • In November 2005, Broadcom, Ericsson, NEC, Nokia, Panasonic Mobile Communications and Texas Instruments announced that have each filed complaints to the European Commission requesting that it investigate anti-competitive conduct by Qualcomm in the licensing of essential patents for 3G mobile technology.


  • In July 2005, Broadcom commenced litigation against Qualcomm alleging that the company's licensing and other practices related to cellular technology and products violate U.S. antitrust laws. Separately pending between the parties are two patent lawsuits brought by Broadcom alleging that Qualcomm infringes 10 Broadcom patents related to wired and wireless communications and multimedia processing technologies.