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Technology Stocks : The New Qualcomm - a S&P500 company
QCOM 154.12-3.3%Jan 20 3:59 PM EST
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To: carranza2 who wrote (11690)6/7/2000 11:19:00 AM
From: Art Bechhoefer  Read Replies (1) of 13582
 
"I don't know if this is a general legal point or whether patent and copy right law is different."

Not being a lawyer with patent experience, I can only suggest that the current situation resembles an earlier dispute between Polaroid and Kodak dealing with instant camera and film patents. In that dispute, Polaroid sought, and I believe obtained an injunction preventing Kodak or any other company from selling instant cameras and film in the U.S. As you have noted, it is necessary to show irreparable harm, which Polaroid was able to do. Polaroid eventually won the lawsuit but did not prevail on the issue of intent to infringe (which would have resulted in treble damages). The court found, however, that Kodak had infringed something like a dozen patents on both the camera and the film. Considering that Kodak was the main supplier of film to Polaroid for many years, it was hard to argue that Kodak didn't know something about the instant film process and the kind of mechanixm that would make it work.

The irreparable harm in QUALCOMM's case would be similar to that suffered by competitors of Microsoft, who had difficulty selling their products once Windows became the dominant operating system for PC's. Put another way, if WCDMA becomes the accepted standard, the case is more than just patent infringement. A WCDMA standard might permanently reduce the dominant role that QCOM could have secured from acceptance of CDMA2000. While some of the damage is money related, other parts of the damage are related to restraint of trade and anticompetitive behavior.
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