BRCM: U.S. International Trade Commission Upholds Finding of Patent Infringement Against Qualcomm(Nasdaq: QCOM)

Broadcom Corporation (Nasdaq: BRCM), a global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications, announced today that the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) has upheld an initial determination that Qualcomm Incorporated (Nasdaq: QCOM) infringes five claims of a Broadcom® patent.
The Commission will now consider the appropriate remedy for Qualcomm's infringement, which could include a permanent exclusion order barring the importation into the United States of infringing Qualcomm chips, a cease and desist order barring Qualcomm from further use or sale of infringing products in the United States, and/or an exclusion order barring the importation into the United States of cellular phones containing infringing Qualcomm chips.

On October 10 ITC Administrative Law Judge Charles E. Bullock determined that all three patents asserted in the ITC proceeding by Broadcom were valid, and that one, U.S. Patent No. 6,714,983, was infringed by Qualcomm. The Commission's decision, issued December 8, rejected Qualcomm's challenges to those findings. The infringing products include cellular baseband processor chips that comprise Qualcomm's core suite of enhanced multimedia and convergence handset platforms.

"Qualcomm expects other companies to respect and pay dearly for the use of its intellectual property, but refuses to respect the intellectual property of others. The Commission's decision is an important step toward leveling that lopsided view," said David A. Dull, Broadcom's Senior Vice President and General Counsel. "We fully intend to prosecute this ITC case to conclusion, and to continue to aggressively enforce our patent rights against Qualcomm in other pending cases."

In the next step of the ITC process, the Commission will receive additional briefing from the parties regarding the appropriate remedy for Qualcomm's infringement, and will issue its determination on remedy by February 9, 2007. The President then has sixty days to approve or disapprove the remedy.

A recent IEEE Spectrum magazine survey ranked Broadcom at No. 5 among hundreds of companies worldwide rated for the power of their patent portfolios.