Broadcom Wins Video Compression Lawsuit Against Qualcomm

Broadcom has announced that a federal jury in San Diego found that the company had not infringed two patents for digital video compression owned by Qualcomm. In addition to finding the two patents not infringed, in an advisory opinion to the presiding judge the jury found that Broadcom proved that Qualcomm knowingly violated a duty to disclose its patents to the Joint Video Team, or its parent organization, during the JVT's preparation and eventual adoption of the video compression industry standard known as the H.264 standard.

In a second advisory opinion to the judge, the jury found that Broadcom showed that Qualcomm had committed inequitable conduct before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) by breaching its duty of honesty and good faith in dealings with the USPTO.

"We are obviously very pleased and very grateful for this jury's diligence in working to arrive at the truth, even when presented with some very complex and intricate engineering testimony," said David A. Dull, Broadcom's Senior Vice President and General Counsel. "This is a victory not just for Broadcom but for the entire digital video community, against an attempt by Qualcomm once again to tax an important new technology -- in this instance based upon the claims of a single patent. The trial not only showed that Qualcomm was wrong about Broadcom's alleged infringement, but also cast a bright light on Qualcomm's penchant for abusing the rules and procedures of industry standards-making bodies."

Broadcom is now in the final stages of preparing additional cases that go to the heart of its patent infringement disputes with Qualcomm concerning cellular baseband chips."

Posted to the site on 29th January 2007