Qualcomm aims to seek stay of U.S. ban
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Qualcomm Inc  is aiming to file on Monday or Tuesday for an emergency stay of a U.S government ban on importing certain phones containing its chips, general counsel Lou Lupin said on Friday.
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The hit on Qualcomm from a patent suit it lost to rival Broadcom may be slashed because of an unrelated ruling that came down in August.In May, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California found that&#160;Qualcomm infringed three Broadcom patents&#160;and awarded Broadcom $19.6 million. The judge in that case, James Selna, said he would double the damages to more than $39 million because the jury found the infringement was wilful. The damage award isn&#39;t final because other issues in the case are still pending.On Monday, Selna tentatively overturned the double award because of a new standard for proving wilful infringement, said Broadcom attorney David Rosmann. Broadcom can either accept the $19.6 million in direct damages or pursue a new trial in which it would try to prove Qualcomm acted deliberately, he said. Judge Selna ruled any new trial would look at the whole case over again, he said.Broadcom hasn&#39;t decided which path to take, but its priority in the case is getting an injunction to stop Qualcomm from making, using or selling the chips, Rosmann said.&quot;The issue of the injunction is far more important to Broadcom than the damages,&quot; Rosmann said. &quot;We&#39;re hoping to move forward on the injunction as quickly as possible.&quot;In August, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upped the ante for patent owners that want to earn higher damages -- they can be as much as tripled -- by proving someone knew they were infringing a patent and did so anyway, according to patent attorney Smith Brittingham of Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett &amp; Dunner.&quot;You have to show more comprehension of the situation than you would have had to in the past,&quot; Brittingham said. The Federal Circuit ruling, on a suit against hard-drive vendor Seagate Technology, automatically changed the standard in all federal courts, he said. The ruling could change other pending cases, he said.The new standard probably won&#39;t discourage patent suits among competitors like the Broadcom-Qualcomm dispute, but it may make litigation less attractive for patent-holding companies in the business of suing, Brittingham said.&quot;It&#39;s consistent with the view that ... maybe patent infringement cases have gotten too easy to win and have created an unnecessary drag on business,&quot; he said.Judge Selna asked Broadcom for a decision by the end of this week, Rosmann said. Qualcomm declined to comment on the substance of the case.The suit is one of several between Qualcomm and Broadcom, who are battling over the market for mobile-phone chips.
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- Chip designer Broadcom Corp.  said the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) denied Qualcomm Inc's  request to stay the regulator's recent order in the ongoing patent dispute between the companies.
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U.S. mobile users waiting for the next crop of phones could breathe a sigh of relief Wednesday when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit granted a stay on an import ban against handsets that use some Qualcomm chips.
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The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC)&#160;said it will investigate whether Qualcomm is complying with a ban that prohibits it from importing certain chips into the U.S.
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A U.S. appeals court on Friday said  Qualcomm Inc.  was premature in appealing an order by a  federal trade agency that banned imports of some cellular  telephones containing Qualcomm chips.
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Commission expected to rule Thursday whether cell phones using a particular Qualcomm technology can be imported to the U.S.
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European Commission may forbid the use of Qualcomm's mobile TV technology in Europe.
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InfoWorld - U.S. mobile users waiting for the next crop of phones could breathe a sigh of relief Wednesday when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit granted a stay on an import ban against handsets that use some Qualcomm chips.
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TechWeb - An international limit on Qualcomm&#39;s technology could benefit Apple, because some of the advanced phones impacted by the ban were expected to compete directly with the iPhone.
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(InfoWorld) - The head of the cellular industry association sent a letter to President Bush, asking him to strike the U.S. International Trade Commission's recentÂ ban on the import of Qualcomm phones in the U.S. The ban, issued by the commission on June 7, can be vetoed by the president within 60 days of the ruling. Historically, presidents have rarely overturned such a decision from the ITC. The ban will "freeze innovation" for wireless networks in the country and will adversely affect public safet, wrote Steve Largent, president and CEO of the CTIA cellular industry association, in a letter to the president dated Wednesday. In addition to diminishing public safety agencies' ability to conduct basic communications, the ban will also hinder the mobile industry's efforts to improve emergency 911 services, he wrote. That's because the ban only covers future phone models while allowing existing phones to continue to reach the market. As a result, new technologies that can allow better pinpointing of 911 callers won't be imported if the ban stands, Largent wrote. He paints a broad picture of woe across the industry that will result from the ban. "Substantial investments will be stranded and jobs will be lost if the ITC importation ban is allowed to stand," according to the letter. Largent warns that the ban will force the redesign of all handsets that use the chips, a process that could take 18 months to two years and could cost millions of dollars. That process will reduce the international competitiveness of the companies and pass on costs to consumers, he said. The ban is a result of aÂ patent feud between Qualcomm and Broadcom. The ITC ruling follows an earlier finding thatÂ Qualcomm infringed on a Broadcom patentÂ related to power management. The ITC took unusual steps in order to develop the parameters of the ban, holding hearings with the two companies and entertaining ideas from the industry. It is rare for the ITC to grandfather in products, allowing them to be imported even though they have been found to infringe intellectual property. The only similar cases historically have involved products that could directly harm lives if they became unavailable. If the president doesn't strike the ban, Qualcomm can appeal the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, asking for a stay of the ban. However, the court rarely issues stays to such decisions. Qualcomm has said that it plans to urge the president to overturn the ban and if he doesn't, the company will appeal the decision in court.
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Judge says competitor Maxim may have infringed on Qualcomm's patents but won't bar sales of contested cell phone chips.
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(InfoWorld) - The U.S. International Trade Commission said that QualcommÂ is infringing on one of Broadcom's patents, dealing a blow to Qualcomm in anÂ ongoing patent battleÂ between the companies. The Commission hasn't yet issued a penalty for the infringement and Qualcomm pledged to appeal the decision. The companies are in the midst of many other lawsuits with each other regarding cell phone patents. Broadcom said the Commission could bar Qualcomm from importing its chips to the U.S., forbid Qualcomm from selling the infringing products in the U.S., and even ban the import of phones containing the chips. But Qualcomm says that the Administrative Law Judge, who made the initial ruling that was upheld by the Commission, has recommended against barring the import of phones that use the chips. The Commission made its ruling on Friday and both Qualcomm and Broadcom released statements on Monday. The Commission will issue its remedy decision by Feb. 9. Qualcomm has downplayed the importance of the technology in question, saying it is based on software and not fundamental to CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access), the mobile technology that Qualcomm created and is best known for. Qualcomm has said previously that it is exploring ways to work around the technology. The two companies have several other outstanding cases against each other. One is set to be tried in March, another in May, and a third doesn't yet have a trial date set. Broadcom is also appealing an antitrust suit that it filed against Qualcomm which has been dismissed. Broadcom is also one of five technology companies that filedÂ anticompetitive complaints against QualcommÂ with the European Commission. Â
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A U.S. federal judge has clamped further restrictions on Qualcomm&#39;s ability to sell and support certain wireless chip sets, saying that they infringe on three patents held by rival Broadcom.The injunction, issued Monday by U.S. District Court Judge James Selna, prohibits Qualcomm from making and selling certain third generation (3G) chip sets, used to provide Internet access to mobile phones. Qualcomm is also barred from engaging in a range of marketing and customer support activities related to its WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) and EV-DO (EVolution-Data Only) chips, which are used to process data on high-speed wireless networks.The ruling is the latest in a series of actions in the long-running dispute between the two chip vendors. In July, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC)&#160;ruled that Qualcomm infringed Broadcom patents&#160;and barred Qualcomm from importing chips to the U.S., but the Commission allowed mobile phone vendors to ship the chips in their products.&quot;The ITC order did not go nearly as far in prohibiting other activities from Qualcomm,&quot; said David Rosmann, vice president of intellectual property litigation with Broadcom. &quot;The U.S. District Court order has in some respects much broader remedies. So the activities that are going to be barred by this injunction go a long way to&#160;stopping Qualcomm&#39;s continued operations&#160;in support of these infringing chips.&quot;Broadcom sued Qualcomm in May 2005, claiming that Qualcomm&#39;s chips violated three of the company&#39;s patents. In May of this year, a&#160;jury found in Broadcom&#39;s favor&#160;and awarded the company $19.6 million in damages. Monday&#39;s injunction stems from that decision.Broadcom is also suing Qualcomm on other patent infringement and antitrust claims, Rosmann said. The antitrust case is expected to go to trial in 2009.Qualcomm executives could not be reached immediately for comment.
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A federal court has temporarily lifted a ban on imports of new phones using Qualcomm chips while the chip maker appeals a patent infrigement case.
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A ban on all importation of future 3G handset models using Qualcomm technology could have a big impact on cell phone operators and handset manufacturers.
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Blog: The International Trade Commission has denied a stay of a ban it imposed earlier this month on the import of new handsets using Qualcomm's 3G chips.