Broadcom Awarded $19.6M Damages
Tuesday May 29, 6:31 pm ET
Broadcom Awarded $19.6M in Patent Case Against Qualcomm
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) -- A federal jury on Tuesday found that Qualcomm Inc.'s chips for cell phones violated three patents owned by rival Broadcom Corp., the companies said.
The jury awarded Broadcom $19.6 million in damages and found that Qualcomm's infringement was willful -- which means the award may be increased up to threefold, Qualcomm said in a press release.
Broadcom said the unanimous verdict found that certain Qualcomm cellular baseband chips and software infringe claims of three of its patents.
Broadcom added it plans to ask the court to issue a permanent injunction barring Qualcomm from further infringement of the patents. San Diego-based Qualcomm said it may appeal the ruling.
"We continue to believe that none of the Broadcom patent claims are valid or were infringed by Qualcomm, and we will challenge the jury's findings," Lou Lupin, Qualcomm's general counsel, said in a statement.
On Friday, the U.S. International Trade Commission delayed issuing a remedy in a patent dispute between the two companies, deciding to wait until June 7. The ITC had already postponed a ruling that had been set for May 8.
San Diego-based Qualcomm makes chips for cell phones and licenses its technology to other manufacturers. Its mainstay is the cellular technology used on Sprint Nextel Corp.'s and Verizon Communications Inc.'s networks in the U.S. Qualcomm's shares rose 93 cents, or 2.2 percent, to $44.28. In aftermarket activity, they lost 38 cents to $43.90.
Irvine-based Broadcom makes a wider variety of chips, for cable set-top boxes, modems and other networking gear. Its shares rose 13 cents to $30.48 in Tuesday's trading.
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