New Jersey federal court holds Qualcomm’s unFRANDly acts no antitrust violation

Richard Stern

2/25/2015
(Original Publish Date: 10/16/2006)

In the last few months, two federal tribunals have reached opposite results in determining whether alleged playing fast and loose with the operations of a standard-setting organization (SSO) violates the antitrust laws. In the New Jersey case, Broadcom Corp., a manufacturer of chipsets for communications applications, sued Qualcomm Inc., another chipset manufacturer and the owner of patents essential to complying with the Universal Mobile Telephone System (UMTS) standard. Broadcom charged that Qualcomm deceived US and international SSOs into incorporating Qualcomm's patented technology into the UMTS standard by making intentionally false representations that it would license its patents on FRAND terms