Judge doubles Qualcomm's patent infringement damages payment to $39.3M

By Colleen Taylor, Contributing Editor -- Electronic News, 8/14/2007

A district court on Monday struck another painful blow against embattled communications technology player Qualcomm Inc., ordering the company to pay double damages of $39.3 million for the past infringement of three patents belonging to rival chip company Broadcom Corp.. The judge also ordered Qualcomm to pay Broadcom's attorneys' fees in the litigation.

In May, a federal jury in a U.S. district court in Santa Ana, Calif., found that Qualcomm had willfully infringed the three Broadcom patents, and awarded Broadcom $19.64 million in damages. However, according to Broadcom, because the infringement was found to be "willful," U.S. District Judge James V. Selna was granted the discretion to increase the damages. On Monday, Broadcom announced that Selna had indeed opted to increase the fine required from Qualcomm by doubling the amount of damages initially awarded by the jury to $39.3 million.

Broadcom filed the lawsuit in May 2005, alleging that five of its patents had been infringed. During the course of the litigation, Broadcom dismissed one patent, and the court stayed the case with respect to a second patent. Selna issued a tentative ruling on the awards August 9; on Monday he made the order final.

An injunction hearing in the case, in which Broadcom is seeking to bar future infringement of the patents by Qualcomm, is scheduled to begin today.

Monday's ruling marks only the latest in a deluge of litigation-related battles Qualcomm has been fighting recently. The International Trade Commission (ITC) is set to enact an widely impacting ban on the importation of a number of Qualcomm chips that have been found to infringe a patent owned by rivaling communications technology company Broadcom Corp., after the Bush administration announced last week that itwould not provide Qualcomm with the requested veto of the ITC's order.

Also last week, a San Diego federal court dismissed patent infringement claims that Qualcomm had lobbied against Broadcom, ruling that because Qualcomm has engaged in "aggravated litigation misconduct and standards abuse" with respect to two of its own patents, it has thereby waived its rights to enforce all claims of the two patents.

Amidst all the turmoil and presumably due, at least in part, to his ever-increasing legal caseload, Lou Lupin resigned on Monday his position as executive VP and general counsel for Qualcomm. Further details on the reasons for Lupin's resignation were not immediately provided by Qualcomm. The company said that Carol Lam, senior VP and legal counsel, will serve as acting general counsel of Qualcomm while a nationwide executive search is conducted for a new general counsel.

Reps for Qualcomm were not immediately available to Electronic News for comment.