Qualcomm, Broadcom ease up on lawsuits

By Colleen Taylor -- Electronic News, 3/19/2007

Long-feuding communications chipmakers, San Diego, Calif.-based Qualcomm Inc. and Irvine, Calif.-based Broadcom Corp., have settled at least some of their many disputes.

Qualcomm has reached agreements with Broadcom to dismiss without prejudice all of its patent-related claims and counterclaims, and to dismiss with prejudice all trade secret misappropriation claims asserted by either party in two lawsuits that were pending in San Diego federal court, according to separate statements released March 16 by the two companies.

Among what is being dismissed are claims of patent infringement under six Broadcom patents and under four Qualcomm patents, and claims by each party that the other had misappropriated its trade secrets. The dismissal of the patent and trade secret misappropriation claims eliminates the need for five separate jury trials scheduled throughout 2007, the first of which had been scheduled to begin today, the companies said.

The without-prejudice dismissals are just the latest in what appears to be the winding-down of the long-running courtroom saga between Qualcomm and Broadcom. Last month, Qualcomm announced it had reached an agreement with Broadcom to dismiss with prejudice all its patent-related claims and counterclaims with Broadcom.

The war is not completely over yet, however. Broadcom still intends to go through with a pair of its own cases against Qualcomm. Patent infringement claims filed by Broadcom in May 2005 in federal courts in Orange County, Calif., and with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) are unaffected by the agreement.

Conversely, the only remaining Qualcomm case against Broadcom is a U.S. district court case in San Diego in which Qualcomm alleges that Broadcom infringed two patents relating to video compression. In January, a jury found that Broadcom did not infringe the patents and recommended findings that Qualcomm committed inequitable conduct and standards abuse. The parties are awaiting the court's final ruling on those issues.

Qualcomm's dismissals may well provide a much-needed respite for the company's legal team, which may soon need to gear up to fight new patent-related battles. Finland-based cell phone maker Nokia today announced that it has filed complaints against Qualcomm in Germany and the Netherlands, requesting declarations that Qualcomm's European patents are exhausted in respect to products placed on the European Union market with a Qualcomm license.