Other Ericsson patents:
I did another search through all of Ericsson's reissued patents, and discovered the other two reissues (issued early Feb 99):
1) RE036079 which is a reissue of 5109528, the latter of which has been discussed before. Surprisingly, as weak as 5109528 is, it is still stronger than the other two patents (including the two other reissues). No need to discuss it again.
2) RE036078 which is a reissue of 5327577. In this case Ericsson has gotten very very tricky with the English language. Given that the reissue was filed for more than 2 years after the original grant they could not enlarge the scope. However, they added words that if read one way do indeed fit within the scope of the original patent, but if read another way 'read on' Qualcomm's handoff technique (however, even so, Qualcomm has an earlier patent describing the same thing (combining two different data streams coming from different cells)). Just FYI - the wording is kind of neat 'Combining information tramsitted by the first BS and information transmitted by the second BS ...'. The original Ericsson patent strictly speaking did indeed talk about combining such info - at the bit-by-bit RF reception level (there is a very quick reference to combining it at a higher level, but no details are given - almost certainly not enforceable especially given Qualcomm's earlier and more detailled patent.) But in a quick read the new claims in Ericsson's patent read as if they mean combining the streams at a higher level which is a very different process.
Given the Ericsson patents which they are using in the trial I would say that the strongest is the one I looked at several months ago, and that is pretty weak. (Although, it should be noted that it may be difficult to transmit this to a judge.) I can't believe Ericsson doesn't know this, so I am curious as to what Ericsson's motives are. Are they hoping that Qualcomm will bumble it? Are they hoping that Qualcomm will cave? Is it purely for the show? Maybe their other patents are stronger, but then why did they not dismiss these?
???
Clark |
