Qualcomm pays out $19.6 million to Broadcom in patent suit

Looks like the pockets of Qualcomm are going to be about $19.6 million lighter real soon, as a federal jury in Santa Ana, California returned verdicts that found "certain Qualcomm products" infringing on three patents owned by Broadcom Corporation. The lawsuit was originally filed way back in May of 2005 and alleged that five of its patents had been violated, but during the course of the trials, Broadcom ditched one of the claims while the court stayed the case with respect to a second. Notably, none of the patents that were infringed upon were "developed specifically in connection with cellular technology or standards," but the seemingly willful wrongdoing will indeed cost Qualcomm just shy of $20 million -- that is, until a trial judge mulls this thing over and determines if the firm should face any additional financial punishment "based on the finding of willfulness."

[Frankenstein Black @ May 31st 2007 9:19AM]

Qualcomm, Again I say F'em! They fancy themselves the Intel and MS of the mobile world all rolled up into one. Patent trolling and Brew pushing dose not a "genuine" company make. They would love nothing more than to have the globes 95% GSM/EDGE networks convert to CDMA 1XRTT and 2000. Why? GREEEEEEEEED! F'EM!!!

Oh yea, just to clarify Ericsson and the US Military developed CDMA technology, Period!

[tom @ May 31st 2007 9:49PM]

^so they're greedy because they want to sell their product??? How is this different from everyother company on the planet. Qualcomm owns patents for commonly used CDMA networks, Period!