Communications process vendor Broadcom seems to be on a suit-winning spree nowadays. Only days after it won a US International Trade Commission (ITC) ruling against GPS (Global Positioning System) chip maker SiRF for allegedly infringing six Broadcom patents, the company has won a federal judge ruling against the biggest chipmaker in the world Qualcomm.(See: Broadcom wins patent infringement case against SiRF)

US District Judge James Selna of the District Court for the Central District of California found that Qualcomm violated an injunction on use of chips for certain networks with high-speed Internet connections. He also ruled that Qualcomm was not paying royalties to Broadcom on phones with its QChat walkie-talkie feature.

''Qualcomm's conduct demonstrates a startling lack of respect for its competitors' intellectual property, industry standards-setting processes, and the courts,'' David Rosmann, Broadcom's vice president of intellectual-property litigation, said in a statement.

A jury found in May 2007 that San Diego-based Qualcomm violated patents on Broadcom technology to help cell phones process video and walkie-talkie conversations and hand off calls between different networks.

In July, Qualcomm urged an appeals court that specializes in patent law to overturn the verdict and the order that bans sales of certain chips and software that were the subject of the trial.

The court found that Qualcomm violated the injunction by continuing to service and support WCDMA products that were made and sold between the date of the trial verdict in May and the date the injunction first issued on 31 December, 2007.

Qualcomm interpreted the order as requiring it to pay royalties on such products and provided service and support in reliance on that interpretation. The court disagreed and a new accounting will require Broadcom to return the royalty payments.

Qualcomm will have to stop servicing some of the WCDMA chips it sold between the trial in May 2007 and the judge's order in December, company lawyer Alex Rogers said. Qualcomm has been selling a work-around version of the chips and thought it could service the older chips as long as they weren't sold in the US, he said.

The judge still has to determine if Qualcomm violated his order by offering to sell some of the infringing WCDMA chips in the US. Rogers said the company had a system to ensure the chips were only sold overseas.

Qualcomm also must turn over its profits to Broadcom on sales related to the QChat software version 3.0 sold after 31 December. Broadcom has to return royalties Qualcomm paid on those versions. Qualcomm no longer sells the 3.0 version, Rogers said.

''We have the utmost respect for the court and Judge Selna but we do disagree and will appeal this ruling,'' Rogers said.

Qualcomm spokesman Bill Davidson said the company had offered Broadcom a royalty-free cross license and $100 million before any courts or agencies issued rulings to block chips or software. Rogers said the possibility of settlement remains ''if we could find some acceptable compromise.''

Broadcom Corporation is a Los Angeles-based supplier of integrated circuits (ICs) for broadband communications. Founded in 1991 by Henry Samueli (chairman and CTO) and Henry Nicholas, it became a public company in 1998 and now employs over 6,800 people worldwide. It had annual revenues of $3.78 billion last year.

Qualcomm is the world's largest maker of chips that run cell phones and is known for pioneering technologies. Qualcomm is the inventor of CDMAone (IS-95), CDMA 2000, and CDMA 1xEV-DO, which are wireless cellular standards used for communications. The company also owns significant number of key patents on the widely adopted 3G technology, W-CDMA. With an employee count of 12,800, it posted revenues of $8.87 billion in 2007.