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Court saves Qualcomm from paying doubled compensatory damages to Broadcom – $19.6 million in damages

By: , IntoMobile
Friday, November 23rd, 2007 at 8:15 PM

Qualcomm to pay damages to BroadcomIn a moment of bittersweet victory for Qualcomm, a federal judge upheld U.S. District Court Judge James V. Selna’s previous ruling that Qualcomm is indeed guilty of infringing on Broadcom’s 3G WCDMA technology. However, and here’s the sweet part, the ruling overturned Judge Selna’s decision to double the damages awarded to Broadcom by a federal jury.

Earlier this year, the federal jury had unanimously found that Qualcomm was guilty of infringing on Broadcom’s patents. The jury further found that Qualcomm’s actions were willful, which allowed Selna to double the $19.6 million damage amount to $39.3 million. Broadcom was offered another the option to seek a new trial in which the willfulness of Qualcomm’s actions would be tried again, but the Irvine, CA.-based chipmaker has decided to accept $19.6 million in compensatory damages.

So, Qualcomm ended up saving a good chunk of change. Unfortunately, they’re still going to have to cough up a sizable fortune to Broadcom. At least they’ve had a bit of good luck in getting those other cases dismissed.

[Via: EETimes]

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About The Author

Will Park

Will hails from The City of Angels - Los Angeles, California. He spends his time playing with his numerous gadgets and looking forward to seeing what future holds for mobile technology. An avid promoter of a fully "digital" life, he promotes the widespread adoption of truly mobile, paper-less living. He dreams of the day when he can go completely digital. No more snail mail, paper receipts, bound books, notepads/spiral notebooks, credit cards, hard currency. He's a digital warrior - fighting for the converged life. He is an idealist and a realist - he has a perfect view of what the world should be but knows that the world is not perfect. Can we ever hope to see Will's dream become reality? We'll see...