A Santa Ana judge on Thursday found that San Diego’s Qualcomm Inc. violated an earlier ruling by continuing to sell cell phone chips that Broadcom Corp. had patented and by failing to pay royalties on time.
Judge James Selna found that Qualcomm was still infringing on Irvine-based Broadcom’s patents by continuing to “use and support” specific chips that allow for high-speed Internet access in phones and failing to pay royalties for others that allow for walkie-talkie features.
Selna ordered Qualcomm to pay Broadcom the profits it’s earned on some of the chips and to pay Broadcom’s legal fees connected with the case.
“Qualcomm’s conduct demonstrates a startling lack of respect for its competitors’ intellectual property, industry standards-setting processes and the courts,” David Rosmann, Broadcom’s vice president of intellectual property litigation, said in a statement.
Qualcomm had until January of this year to either continue paying royalties to Broadcom or quit selling the chips to its customers, which include the world’s top cell phone manufacturers.
The court said it reserved the right to see if Qualcomm should also be held in contempt for trying to sell the chips while they were under an injunction.
The most recent round of legal sparring dates back to a judge’s May 2007 decision that Qualcomm had infringed on three of Broadcom’s cell phone chip patents.
Qualcomm was then ordered to pay Broadcom some $20 million in damages and immediately stop selling the chips to cell phone makers.
Broadcom had a recent market value of about $13 billion.
