Broadcom Sues Qualcomm over Patents

Two suits were filed against Qualcomm for infringing on a total of 10 Broadcom patents. Broadcom is one of the largest distributors of communication silicon. The patents infringed upon, were dealing with their chips used in computer chips, wired & wireless communication systems, as well as many other products containing chips. "Patents grant an inventor the right to exclude others from producing or using the inventor's discovery or invention for a limited period of time. U.S. patent laws were enacted by Congress under its Constitutional grant of authority to protect the discoveries of inventors." http://www.law.cornell.edu/topics/patent.html

The two suits were filed into the U.S District Court and have also filed complaints with the (ITC) International Trade Commission as some of the disputed products in question were imported from foreign manufacturing plants.

The U.S District Court is the trial courts of the Federal court system. The Courts have jurisdiction over both criminal and civil cases. As part of the U.S District court system is the court of International trade, they specialize in dealings with disputes over federal contracts, patent infringement and many other disputes. The dispute in the article is that of civil law. Civil Law deals with cases that involve divorces, contract disputes and property ownership including patents; this will end in a result of an economic reward.

Criminal law addresses the need to investigate crimes, prosecute and hold offenders accountable for crimes they have committed through prison or probationary sentences. Common cases that would be found in the criminal court systems would be; murder, rape, robbery, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Possible outcomes for this case:

* Royalty payments for infringements

* Large settlements

* Costs of legal process

The reason these types of cases are not criminal in nature is that the companies are competitors in their type of business and something like this could cause major financial difficulties for the opposing company. They are after an economic reward and not a criminal charge.

Article:

http://www.computerworld.com/printthis/2005/0,4814,101856,00.html

- Communications chip vendor Broadcom Corp. has sued Qualcomm Inc., seeking to halt the manufacture and sale of key Qualcomm chips.

The suit,