Qualcomm swept up in communication patent litigation
Plaintiff has sued Google, Cisco, IBM and numerous others over alleged infringement | Latest suit concerns a security patent that Nokia, Samsung and others have also been accused of infringing.
Qualcomm has become the latest target in a litigation campaign waged by a company that has filed a wave of lawsuits against Broadcom, Google, Ivanti, Cisco, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Samsung, VMware, and Zoho.
AttestWave alleges that the chipmaker infringed a security patent in a complaint filed at the US District Court for the Western District of Texas, yesterday, July 19.
A hotly contested patent
The patent, US number 7,305,704, titled Management of trusted flow system, was issued by the US Patent and Trademark Office in 2007 and discloses a method and system for detecting and reacting to unexpected communications patterns.
It seems that this patent is a hotly contested one: AttestWave has also previously sued Nokia, Samsung, Zoho and Avanti for allegedly infringing the ‘704 patent.
This latest development comes after Qualcomm has faced a number of high profile lawsuits and probes over the past decade, including from tech giants Apple and Broadcom, as well as investigations by the US Federal Trade Commission and the European Competition Commission.
Last month, WIPR sat down with John Han, senior vice president and general manager for Qualcomm Technology Licensing (QTL), to get his take on the company’s business model, and its critics.
Litigation and scaremongering
During the interview, he took a sanguine view of litigation as a legal instrument in the telecoms sector, arguing that there was a lot of “scaremongering” regarding court actions.
“I've been in this business since 1995. And patent litigation has been ongoing—because, essentially, by their nature, patents are legal instruments. So we are working within the system to secure the protection and enforcement of the patent rights, which are valuable legal rights,” he said.
“Having said that, there is a lot of scaremongering that litigation is increasing, that it costs too much, and that it takes too long. And when there are disagreements, then litigation is a tool that companies sometimes use—but it's not as abusive or as scary as people make it out to be.”
According to this latest complaint, Qualcomm has, despite alleged prior knowledge of the patent-in-suit, “continued to make, use, test, sell, offer for sale, market, and/or import into the US products that infringe the ’704 patent”.
AttestWave also alleges that Qualcomm has also continued to distribute product literature and website materials inducing end users and others to use its products in a manner that infringes the ’704 patent.
The company is seeking a jury trial under Rule 38(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and is asking for a judgment that the ’704 patent is valid and enforceable and that Qualcomm has infringed directly and indirectly one or more claims of the ‘patent.
It is also demanding damages, compensation and attorney fees.
Did you enjoy reading this story? Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories sent like this straight to your inbox
