Qualcomm’s head legal counsel jumps ship

Qualcomm’s ongoing legal battles are starting to take a toll on the company. The most recent serious setback came in the form of President Bush’s refusal to step in and override the US ITC ban of 3G handset imports containing Qualcomm (NSDQ: QCOM)’s 3G chipsets. Combined with last week’s decision from a US judge to award litigation costs to Broadcom (NSDQ: BRCM) for Qualcomm’s “constant stonewalling, concealment and repeated misrepresentation” in the legal battle over video compression patents – Qualcomm is definitely sailing some rough waters.

Lou Lupin, Executive VP and general counsel for Qualcomm, has finally decided that he’s had enough of his company’s shenanigans – he resigned his position. Carol Lam, Senior VP and legal counsel will be acting as an interim general counsel until Qualcomm can find another executive to take Lupin’s vacated-post. Whoever takes the title of “General Counsel” at Qualcomm definitely has their work cut out for them – they’ll be earning that huge paycheck the hard way.

We hate to hear executives jumping ship, since it usually indicates that things are not going according to plan. Hey, here’s an idea – start playing nice, Qualcomm. We hear that it works for some companies.

[Via: EE Times]