Qualcomm found in contempt of Broadcom patents

Broadcom Corp. announced that a federal judge found Qualcomm Inc. in contempt of an injunction he ordered last December designed to prevent the latter from continued infringement of three Broadcom patents.

U.S. District Judge James Selna found that Qualcomm violated the injunction by continuing to use and support infringing W-CDMA chips and ordered Qualcomm to immediately cease such use and support. The court further found that Qualcomm violated the injunction by failing to pay royalties to Broadcom on its infringing QChat products. Citing the "egregiousness" of Qualcomm's conduct, the court ordered Qualcomm to pay Broadcom the gross profits it has earned on its infringing QChat products. Selna further ordered Qualcomm to pay Broadcom's attorneys fees in connection with the contempt proceedings.

Additionally, the court reserved determination of whether Qualcomm should also be held in contempt for post-injunction offers to sell infringing W-CDMA chips pending additional discovery and proceedings.

"Over the past two years, Qualcomm has been found to have infringed four Broadcom patents, abused the standards-setting process, and committed gross discovery misconduct, and now has been held in contempt of a court-ordered injunction," said David Rosmann, Broadcom's VP, intellectual property litigation. "Qualcomm's conduct demonstrates a startling lack of respect for its competitors' intellectual property, industry standards-setting processes, and the courts."

Broadcom filed the case in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, California, in May 2005. On May 29, 2007, a unanimous jury returned a verdict finding that Qualcomm infringed three Broadcom patents and awarded $19.64 million in damages for past infringement.