Qualcomm Strikes Back, Takes Broadcom to the Mat

Online staff -- Electronic News, 7/12/2005

Looking to block Broadcom Corp. from scoring a legal hat trick, Qualcomm Inc. Monday filed a patent infringement suit against its rival.

Qualcomm’s lawsuit, filed in San Diego federal court, asserts infringement of patents that are “essential” to the manufacture or use of equipment that complies with the GSM, GPRS and EDGE cellular standards and to certain interoperability standards for wireless LANs popularly known as Wi-Fi, the company claims.

Qualcomm’s action comes on the heels of Broadcom’s claim last week that Qualcomm violates U.S. antitrust laws with its licensing and other practices related to cellular technology.

Broadcom also filed two patent suits against Qualcomm in May, alleging that Qualcomm infringes 10 Broadcom patents related to wired and wireless communications and multimedia processing technologies.

Qualcomm's complaint states that Broadcom infringes six of its patents by the manufacture and sale of integrated circuits for use in GSM standards-based handsets and infringes an additional patent by the manufacture and sale of semiconductors for Wi-Fi devices. The company seeks an injunction against Broadcom's continued manufacture and sale of those products as well as monetary damages.

“Our complaint, based upon our initial review of Broadcom's business, discloses that a number of Broadcom's major product lines infringe Qualcomm’s patents,” said Louis M. Lupin, Qualcomm senior VP and general counsel, in a statement.

Second-generation GSM systems rely on a form of technology known as time division multiple access (TDMA). For third-generation (3G) services, many GSM wireless carriers have chosen to deploy a form of code division multiple access (CDMA), called WCDMA. However, prior to the transition to 3G, GSM systems started to add data and other capabilities, via GPRS and EDGE technologies, yielding higher data transmission rates, increased spectral efficiency/greater capacity, resistance to interference, access to packet switched networks, and multimedia distribution.

As a result, these evolving GSM standards now incorporate a number of Qualcomm's patented inventions, originally developed to enable such capabilities in CDMA networks. The patents in this suit cover some of Qualcomm's innovations that have now been incorporated into the GSM standards through GPRS and EDGE. As explained in Qualcomm's complaint, Broadcom's integrated circuits for GSM standards-compliant devices unavoidably infringe Qualcomm's patents essential to the GSM Standards.

“Those who believe that Qualcomm's intellectual property portfolio is limited to CDMA have overlooked the breadth of our business activity and the extent of our research and development from which our intellectual property is generated,” Lupin continued.

“Our intellectual property rights are broad, and we will not hesitate to assert their full breadth when appropriate,” he concluded.

Broadcom commented that the Qualcomm filing was in response to the lawsuits that Broadcom filed against the company on May 18, alleging infringement of 10 Broadcom patents. 

“We filed our patent lawsuits on the strength of our conviction that we have a very strong case, and we remain confident of prevailing in the courts,” according to a Broadcom spokesperson.

“We will not be deterred by Qualcomm’s counterclaims,” he continued.

“The same holds true of our complaint in the International Trade Commission, which has launched an investigation into whether Qualcomm has engaged in unfair trade practices through the importation of devices and other products that infringe Broadcom patents,” the Broadcom spokesperson concluded.