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June 4, 2007
Concealment
Wireless
patent maven Qualcomm started a patent war with Broadcom in July 2005. The
ongoing confrontation, involving a wide-ranging slew of patent assertions from
both sides, has been a multi-faceted complexity on multiple fronts.
One patent family stands out: 5,452,104 and 5,576,767, claiming a video codec that Qualcomm figures is part of the H.264 video compression standard. Qualcomm tried to nail Broadcom for adhering to the H.264 standard.
Broadcom accused Qualcomm of participating in the standard setting as part of the Joint Video Team (JVT), and in the process violating JVT's policy requiring participants to disclose related patents. Qualcomm repeatedly denied during trial that it had any relationship with JVT during the standard-setting process, and fought to exclude any evidence related to "a list of subscribers to a JVT ad hoc working group." Qualcomm categorically denied any participation: "There are no e-mails."
From Broadcom's motion, filed last week -
A single question, directed to Qualcomm employee Viji Raveendran on cross-examination during the last day of testimony at trial, began to unravel Qualcomm's "non-participation" argument. Raveendran said she had received emails from JVT, and that these messages had been collected by Qualcomm during discovery.
In ongoing spillage after trial, so far, over 35,000 emails totaling over 226,000 pages were withheld by Qualcomm relating to its JVT participation.
Federal rules 26 and 34 require litigants to disclose relevant evidence as part of a pre-trial discovery process.
The ruling in this case went Broadcom's way. Broadcom now seeks attorneys fees and costs.
As part of its non-infringement position, Broadcom maintains denial that Qualcomm's patents are part of the H.264 standard.
Posted by Patent Hawk at June 4, 2007 4:10 PM | Litigation