A federal appeals court Monday sided with Broadcom Corp. in a legal battle with Qualcomm Inc. but said a lower court went too far when it ruled two Qualcomm patents invalid.
The appellate court agreed with Irvine’s Broadcom and a lower court judge who ruled in 2007 that San Diego-based Qualcomm failed to disclose two video patents to a standards body as part of plan to later seek royalties on them.
But U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit disagreed with the lower court’s ruling that found Qualcomm’s two patents be held to be unenforceable because of its evasive actions.
The patents only should be considered unenforceable as they apply to a digital video standard known as h.264. The appellate court sent the case back to U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California in San Diego.
Broadcom called the ruling a victory since it confirmed its allegations that Qualcomm seeks to hide technology from industry standards groups so it can later extract royalties out of unsuspecting companies.
Qualcomm claimed a victory in the appellate ruling when the court said the trial judge’s remedy was too broad and said that the company’s patents aren’t entirely “unenforceable,” a spokeswoman said.
The ruling is the latest chapter in a case that began in 2005 when Qualcomm sued Broadcom for infringement on patents related to chips that can compress digital video.
Broadcom later filed a suit that charged Qualcomm with unfair business practices, discriminatory licensing and violation of industry standards by concealing its patents.
The company filed a similar suit in October, in which it alleges that Qualcomm’s way of doing business amounts to “patent misuse.”
