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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Incorporated (QCOM) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: waitwatchwander who wrote (146678)	11/29/2006 10:08:56 PM
From: Art Bechhoefer	Respond to of 152472

NF--I'm just trying (not as a lawyer) to analyze the issues set forth in the Supreme Court case argued yesterday, involving KSR and Teleflex. It may be that the definition of "obvious," which is at stake in the KSR-Teleflex case is not even the issue in the litigation involving QCOM. However, if it is similar to the QCOM issues, then the way the Supreme Court rules (probably in April or later in 2007) could certainly affect the value of QCOM patents. As I said, the trend outside the U.S. (and maybe now in the U.S. as well) is to recognize that a slight modification of a process in an already approved patent is a new patent in its own right. If the court finds that a slight modification from a basic patent is not "obvious," then such a finding could diminish the value of an existing patent. Since I'm not a lawyer, I may be missing some of the issues here or interpreting them incorrectly. But I'm simply raising a point that could have important consequences for QCOM. Art