Broadcom (NASDAQ:BRCM) won a patent skirmish as a federal jury in San Diego found that the company had not infringed two patents for digital video compression owned by Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) .

The nine member U.S. District Court jury reached its unanimous verdict after six hours of deliberation, rejecting Qualcomm's claims of infringement following a nine day trial that included testimony from multiple experts as well as the companies' chairmen, Broadcom co-founder Henry Samueli and Qualcomm co-founder Irwin Jacobs.

In addition to finding the two patents not infringed, in an advisory opinion to the presiding judge the jury found that Broadcom proved by clear and convincing evidence that Qualcomm knowingly violated a duty to disclose its patents to the Joint Video Team, or its parent organization, during the JVT's preparation and eventual adoption of the video compression industry standard known as the H.264 standard.

Testimony at the trial also revealed that the Qualcomm requested a royalty for a single patent allegedly reading on H.264 that is twice the amount charged by the entire MPEG LA licensing organization for its pool of 160 essential patents.

In a second advisory opinion to the judge, the jury found Qualcomm committed inequitable conduct before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) by breaching its duty of honesty and good faith in dealings with the USPTO.

Broadcom is now in the final stages of preparing additional cases that go to the heart of its patent infringement disputes with Qualcomm concerning cellular baseband chips. In March 2007, the U.S. District Court in San Diego is scheduled to try Broadcom's claims that Qualcomm infringes two Broadcom patents relating to Bluetooth(R) technology in cellular phones. Then in May 2007, the U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, Calif. is scheduled to try Broadcom's claims that Qualcomm infringes three additional Broadcom patents relating to cellular technology. Qualcomm and Broadcom have other, later-filed patent disputes pending in U.S. District Court in San Diego that are also expected to be tried this year. Following conclusion of the ITC proceeding, expected this March when the Commission is scheduled to rule on remedies for Qualcomm's infringement, Broadcom will also litigate in the Santa Ana court the same three patents that were tried last year in the ITC.

Contact:
David A. Dull, Broadcom's senior VP and general counsel, www.broadcom.com