Qualcomm now sues Broadcom for Patent Infringement

Broadcom was recently in news for suing the telecommunication giant Qualcomm claiming that they misused their market position to hamper the competition. In addition to this anti-trust suit, Broadcom has also two other patent infringement lawsuits on Qualcomm. However, now Qualcomm is fighting back and has filed their own lawsuit against Broadcom. They have accused Broadcom of using technology covered by seven of their own patents without permission.

The company filed the lawsuit in the US District Court for the Southern District of California in San Diego. The said patents are related to integrated circuits for use in GSM phones. Another infringement is on the seventh patent related to semiconductor chips for Wi-Fi devices. Broadcom on the other hand claims in their lawsuits that Qualcomm is infringing on 10 patents of their own. In addition, they say that the antitrust suit was necessary to prevent similar monopoly situation in the 3G cell-phone market.

Louis M. Lupin, Qualcomm’s senior vice president and general counsel said in a statement: “Those who believe that Qualcomm’s intellectual property portfolio is limited to CDMA have overlooked the breadth of our business activity and the extent of our research and development from which our intellectual property is generated. Our intellectual property rights are broad, and we will not hesitate to assert their full breadth when appropriate.”

The new lawsuit from Qualcomm seems to be a result of the actions of Broadcom in the recent days. However, the company claims that their lawsuit is aimed at protecting their own patents, which are being misused by their competitor. Broadcom on their part have said in a statement: “It is very common for defendants in patent cases to respond with countersuits. We filed our patent lawsuits on the strength of our conviction that we have a very strong case, and we remain confident of prevailing in the courts. We will not be deterred by Qualcomm’s counterclaims.”