& the NYT ...........
January 1, 2008
For Now, Judge Lets Qualcomm Use Some of Rival’s Technology
By REUTERS
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) — A federal judge in California ruled on Monday that the wireless chip maker Qualcomm could keep selling through January 2009 some chips whose designs infringe patents held by the Broadcom Corporation.
However, the judge, James V. Selna of Federal District Court, ruled that Qualcomm must immediately stop selling third-generation, or 3G, WCDMA cellular chips that infringe the Broadcom patents.
Qualcomm also is restricted to selling only the EV-DO cellular chips it was offering as of May 29 — when a jury in Santa Ana, Calif., found that the company had infringed the Broadcom patents — and only to customers it had as of that date, a Broadcom lawyer said.
A Broadcom spokesman had no immediate comment because the company’s lawyers were still reviewing the ruling. A Qualcomm representative could not immediately be reached for comment.
Qualcomm also must pay mandatory royalties to Broadcom for the chips it sells during the “sunset period,” which is to end Jan. 31, 2009.
Judge Selna ruled that after that date, Qualcomm would be permanently barred from infringing those Broadcom patents, which cover video compression for mobile phones, walkie-talkie-style technology and simultaneous communications between different types of networks.
Broadcom had asked the judge to impose mandatory license fees for two of the infringed patents for a limited set of Qualcomm products. The licenses would have expired after an 18-month sunset period, after which Qualcomm would have been barred from using the technology.
Broadcom also wanted an immediate and permanent ban with no exceptions for the third patent, on its QChat walkie-talkie function.
Qualcomm had offered to pay three times the amount of a “reasonable royalty” so that it could continue using Broadcom’s patented technology with no injunction. |
