Lawyer Defends Qualcomm Representation
U.S. District Judge Rudi Brewster didn’t name the lawyers who represented Qualcomm when he issued an opinion chastising the company for failing to turn over evidence in its patent infringement suit against rival microchip maker Broadcom.
But the Recorder says the lawyers representing Qualcomm included Stanley Young of Heller Ehrman and James Batchelder of Day Casebeer Madrid & Batchelder.
Brewster accused Qualcomm of “aggravated litigation abuse” and said it had waived its right to enforce two patents for video compression because it failed to disclose its participation in a standards-setting body. (See this ABAJournal.com post for more information.) Qualcomm lost its case at trial, but Broadcom filed a motion for sanctions, citing failure to turn over more than 35,000 discovery documents.
Brewster ordered Qualcomm to pay Broadcom’s legal fees and will rule on possible sanctions in the next couple of weeks, the Recorder says. Broadcom’s vice president of intellectual property litigation, David Rosmann, said fees could reach $10 million.
Batchelder could not be reached for comment. Young released a statement defending his firm.
“The arguments that Heller Ehrman made during the course of the Qualcomm litigation were based on the facts as Heller Ehrman understood them,” the statement said. Young also said the firm was not in charge of responding to requests for evidence about Qualcomm’s participation in a standard-setting body.
