Thursday, May 31, 2007

Qualcomm loses to Broadcom in jury verdict

In another round in the Qualcomm/Broadcom patent wars, on May 29, a federal jury awarded Broadcom $19.6 million in damages and found that Qualcomm's infringement was willful -- which means the award may be increased up to threefold, AND Broadcom aplans to ask the court to issue a permanent injunction barring Qualcomm from further infringement of the patents.

Recall that at pages 35-37 of Innovation and Its Discontents, Jaffe and Lerner identify both Qualcomm and Biogen as companies that use patents in appropriate manners. However, one notes that Qualcomm suffered a reverse in January 2007 in its attempt to use patents to control the H.264 standard.
Of Biogen, Jaffe and Lerner neglected to mention the case of NOELLE v. LEDERMAN, 355 F.3d 1343, 69 U.S.P.Q.2D 1508 (CAFC 2004), wherein Biogen and Idec were fighting over discoveries made with federal funding.

[See Is the Jaffe/Lerner Analysis of Patent Law Correct?]