Broadcom Wins Infringement Case, But SiRF Files Appeal

Sep 10, 2008 3:52 PM

Broadcom Corp. scored a legal victory as an administrative law judge (ALJ) recommended that the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) bar infringing chips from SiRF Technology Holdings and all downstream products incorporating those chips from importation into the U.S. The court also recommended that the ITC enter a cease and desist order prohibiting SIRF from engaging in certain activities related to the infringing chips.

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SiRF and the ITC staff, however, have independently filed appeals with the ITC for review of the ALJ’s ruling. Also, SIRF is working to ensure that its customers can still ship their products to the U.S. The recommended remedy determination of ITC ALJ Carl C. Charneski follows his initial determination earlier this month, which found that SiRF infringes six GPS-related patents held by Global Locate Inc., a Broadcom subsidiary.

“We believe the ALJ’s remedy recommendation further confirms the strength of our intellectual property that SiRF is infringing,” said David Rosman, Broadcom’s vice president of intellectual property litigation.

“There is no ban on shipment of SiRF’s or our customers’ products. In fact, the ITC will not even make any final determination until December after they have finished their investigation, including reviewing the ITC staff’s appeal and our appeal,” said Kanwar Chadha, founder of SiRF Technology.

The full six-person commission will present its final determination on the finding of the infringement and the remedy by early December. Also, an ITC remedies briefing process will determine the impact, if any, of a ruling on SiRF and SiRF customers’ products. The final ITC ruling is subject to a 60-day Presidential review period as well. And, it then can be appealed to the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals.

According to the remedy recommendation, issued on August 22, SiRF and electronics manufacturers would be barred from bringing products such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), personal navigation devices (PNDs), and cell phones into the U.S. if they include SiRF’s infringing chips, which include a range of SiRF GPS products.

The court found that SiRF infringed on United States patents 6,417,801, 6,937,187, 6,606,346, 7,158,080, 6,704,651, and 6,651,000, relating to extended ephemeris assistance (long-term orbits), calculating time in GPS receivers, enhancing sensitivity in assisted GPS systems, and implementing hardware structures for parallel correlation.

Broadcom and Global Locate also have sued SiRF in two different filings with claims of infringement of four patents filed in January 2007 and claims of infringement relating to four additional patents, including patents covering SiRF’s multimedia processors and GPS receivers, filed in May 2008. Broadcom acquired Global Locate in July 2007.