San Diego’s Qualcomm Inc. plans to shift its legal tactics after a string of losses to rival Broadcom Corp. of Irvine, Qualcomm Chief Executive Paul Jacobs said Wednesday.
Jacobs was vague on what kind of changes Qualcomm might make. He said he wants to refute the company’s reputation of being a bully in its industry.
“We still look at ourselves as a David, but when we walk into court people look at us like we’re Goliath,” Jacobs said at a press conference in Washington, D.C.
The designer of chips for wireless phones plans to continue fighting legal challenges from Broadcom and others, he said.
“We’re not fundamentally changing our strategy,” Jacobs said. “We are changing our tactics,” MarketWatch quoted Jacobs as saying.
Qualcomm has had a contentious legal strategy that involves going after companies for royalties after accusing them of infringing on its patents.
About a third of Qualcomm’s $9 billion in revenue is made up of royalty and licensing fees.
Jacobs also warned investors that they should not expect a quick resolution to the patent suits in play with Broadcom and Nokia Corp.
Such legal battles, which Qualcomm has lost for the most part, have stretched back more than two years.
“Some of this technology is complicated and the distinctions are subtle,” Jacobs said about the patent disputes. “The process does work, but it gets stretched out a fairly long time.”
In June, Qualcomm’s chips, which are made in Asia, were banned from entering the country by a federal trade watchdog after it found that Qualcomm infringed on five patents held by Broadcom.
The company lobbied White House to veto the ban, but it was upheld after a review period.
Earlier this year, Broadcom escalated the battle by dropping a bomb that goes beyond patent claims,a lawsuit attacking Qualcomm’s way of doing business by licensing chip designs.
Qualcomm scored a reprieve recently when an appeals court granted a temporary hold on the ban, which included imports of cell phones containing the contested chips.
The repeated legal losses forced Qualcomm’s general counsel to step down in August.
Jacobs said the company is getting closer to hiring a general counsel to takeover for former U.S. Attorney Carol Lam, who stepped in the interim.
Qualcomm plans to continue to appeal the ban and fight other patent disputes.
