Story: Intel Sues Broadcom for Patent Infringement, 9/1/00.

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Intel Sues Broadcom for Patent Infringement

(September 4, 2000) Intel filed a complaint against Broadcom in federal court in Delaware alleging patent infringement. Intel also sued Broadcom last March for misappropriation of trade secrets.

See, Intel's Complaint for Patent Infringement, 8/30/00.

Intel filed a Complaint for Patent Infringement in U.S. District Court in Delaware against Broadcom on Wednesday, August 30, 2000. The complaint alleges that Broadcom infringed five patents, covering a diverse range of technologies, including smart networking products, motion picture decoding used in Broadcom cable products, and the packages which Broadcom uses to sell its chips.

Intel previously filed a complaint against Broadcom in California Superior Court in Santa Clara. That complaint, filed on March 8, 2000, alleged misappropriation of Intel trade secrets. It was based on Broadcom's hiring of Intel employees. The Court issued a Preliminary Injunction against Broadcom on May 25, 2000.

The August 30 complaint asserts only patent infringement. "Nearly every aspect of Broadcom’s business -- cable products, high-speed networking products, even semiconductor package configurations -- violates one or more Intel patents," the complaint alleges. "In fact, the violations of Intel’s technology rights described below appear to be part of a carefully crafted plan to build Broadcom’s business using Intel technology."

About Broadcom

Broadcom is a provider of highly integrated silicon solutions that enable broadband digital transmission of voice, video and data. Broadcom designs, develops and supplies integrated circuits, cable set-top boxes, cable modems, high-speed office networks, home networking, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), residential broadband gateways, direct broadcast satellite and terrestrial digital broadcast, optical networking, digital subscriber lines, and wireless communications.

HQ: Irvine, California.
Ticker: BRCM.
Market Cap. 54 Billion.
Employees: 1,220.

The patents at issue are as follows:

U.S. Patent No. 4,975,830, entitled "Computer Communication System Having Supplemental Formats".
U.S. Patent No. 5,894,410, entitled "Perimeter Matrix Ball Grid Array Circuit Package With A Populated Center".
U.S. Patent No. 5,134,478, entitled "Method and Apparatus for Compressing and Decompressing a Digital Video Signal Using Predicted and Error Images".
U.S. Patent No. 5,079,630, entitled "Adaptive Video Compression System".
U.S. Patent No. 4,823,201, entitled "Processor for Expanding a Compressed Video Signal".

Intel seeks a declaration that Broadcom has infringed these five Intel patents and that the infringement is willful, an injunction against further infringement, and monetary damages.

Intel has demanded a jury trial.

Intel is represented by William Marsden of the law firm of Fish & Richardson, a large intellectual property firm with offices around the country, and by John Gartman, of San Diego. In house counsel are Peter Detkin and Janet Craycroft.

Broadcom did not respond to either a phone call or e-mail from Tech Law Journal.