Broadcom wins major injunction against Qualcomm
In the latest major twist in this epic battle between wireless chipmakers, a US District Judge has slapped a permanent injunction on any products containing those Qualcomm 3G chips ruled to be infringing on Broadcom's so-called '686 patents. Not only can Qualcomm no longer offer infringing devices nor the chips themselves in the US, the retroactive nature of the ruling means that the company can't even provide service or technical support for '686 products already on the market. At this point, with a voluntary licensing agreement seemingly off the table, the next move for Qualcomm is establishing a plan of action to show Judge James Selna how it plans to redesign its products into compliance. [Warning: PDF link][Via Reuters]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Matt @ Jan 1st 2008 6:55PM
I just made the same gesture as Broadcom lawyers did after the judge ruled in their favor. YEAH. Finaly Texas jerks got their ass kicked. I hope 08 will be better for Broadcom. I Never liked Qualcom and their bossiness in the whole 3G world...slapping those OOglee CDMA Qualcom labels on all all phones (remember PrimeCo phones...they had Qualcomm logo embedded in plastic case of the phones). Luckily they do not have monopoly on 3G chips so innovation rules...we will see goot things come out of it.
Omagus @ Jan 2nd 2008 12:21PM
What does Texas have to do with anything? Qualcomm is based out of San Diego.
Gregg W. Smith @ Jan 2nd 2008 3:38PM
Just a point of reference but Qualcomm is based in Sand Deigo and the PrimeCo phones where actually Qualcomm handsets. The Qualcomm handset division was later sold to Kyocera. As a former long suffering Nokia employee who worked on the CDMA accounts it's good to see the smug jerks brought down a notch or three.
Moco Binson @ Jan 2nd 2008 7:40AM
Just curious: what does this imply for the HTC Kaiser models, the Touch Dual, the Cruise, and any other recent HTC handsets featuring the crippled chip? The crippled/disabled video drivers negatively affect everything from gaming to the dreaded long-press screen bug. I had hoped HTC would at some point provided working or updated drivers but this ongoing battle has all but dissuaded me from picking up a new HTC device. Any thoughts?
Matt @ Jan 2nd 2008 2:38PM
My mistake. For some silly reason i thought they were based in Texas. Texas stuck their fingers in Qualcomm though so "Blame Texas" :-) I never bothered to dig into the details of Qualcomm as this is one of the companies that's not on my favorite's list (for the fact that they think they are the GOD of 3G)