A Federal Circuit Appeals Court ruling threw “a wrench” into Qualcomm-Broadcom litigation in Santa Ana, Calif., that could reduce damages awarded to Broadcom and remove Qualcomm liability, Stifel Nicolaus said in a note. Last August, the Santa Ana U.S. District Court ordered Qualcomm to pay double damages of $39.3 million and Broadcom attorney fees after a jury determined Qualcomm infringement of three Broadcom patents was “willful” (CD Aug 15 p10). However, District Judge James Selna is now reviewing the order in light of a September Federal Circuit en banc decision tightening the willfulness standard. Selna urged Qualcomm to file a reconsideration petition and subsequently sent the parties a pre-hearing draft of his tentative opinion. Selna said the Federal Circuit case, In re Seagate, meant the jury’s willfulness finding could not stand unless a new trial on all infringement issues was held. Selna also asked Broadcom to decide if it wanted the retrial or would rather cut its losses and accept the original $19.6 million damages award and no attorney fees. If the tentative ruling solidifies, “Broadcom will likely not seek a new trial,” but Qualcomm will push for one, Stifel Nicolaus said. Selna is expected to rule on Seagate’s implications “any day now,” it added. Seagate has “at a minimum” reduced the damages award to $19.6 million, but it’s uncertain whether Selna will void the original trial, it said. “Qualcomm has the stronger legal argument, but courts do not lightly erase a jury trial,” it said. Meanwhile, the threat of an injunction still looms: “Assuming the jury verdict is not set aside, the real risk to Qualcomm… is not the damages award, but rather, the risk of an injunction,” Stifel Nicolaus said. The Supreme Court’s eBay decision, not Seagate, governs the District Court’s injunction ruling, it said. “One of the factors emerging as important in post-eBay patent injunction decisions is whether the two companies compete,” it said. “We understand that Broadcom does not compete with Qualcomm in the areas covered by the patents, although we also understand that Broadcom sought to provide evidence at trial that they have ‘practiced’ each patent. We expect this issue to weigh heavily in the judge’s analysis, but the lack of a record may make that difficult.” Qualcomm is expected to argue that a Broadcom settlement with Verizon Wireless related to Qualcomm chips banned by the International Trade Commission shows “monetary payment is sufficient” and an injunction “inappropriate,” the analyst firm said. However, “Broadcom would have a potent response that it only decided to license its technology to Verizon because it had certain larger business objectives, which it does not have with its opponent Qualcomm.”
The International Trade Commission has issued a notice of institution of a section 337 investigation of certain digital televisions and certain products containing same and methods of using same.
China's Ministry of Commerce has issued a bulletin announcing that the Chinese government has suspended or revoked the export quality certificates of 764 toy manufacturers located in the Guandong Province. A further 690 manufacturers were ordered to renovate their manufacturing facilities and improve product quality within a set period of time. (MOFCOM bulletin, dated 11/07/07, available at http://ccne.mofcom.gov.cn/bulletin/index.php?flag=1584)
A House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing about a Yahoo official’s “false information” given to the committee at a Feb. 2006 human-rights hearing (WID Feb 16/06 p1) quickly turned to the issue of Yahoo’s failure to help, financially or otherwise, the families of imprisoned Chinese users. Yahoo’s compliance with Chinese demands to turn over user information has resulted in the arrests of at least a handful of dissidents and one journalist. For three hours, lawmakers berated Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang and General Counsel Michael Callahan, frequently interrupting their carefully worded responses with demands to give straight answers, although a few members said Congress deserved some blame for supporting repressive regimes through trade and aid packages.
University students targeted by the RIAA on file-sharing allegations are getting help from two unexpected sources: their own university, and their state’s top law enforcement officer. Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers (D), on behalf of the University of Oregon, filed a motion to quash a subpoena to the school for the identities of 17 John Doe defendants in Arista v. Does 1-17 in U.S. District Court, Eugene. It appears to be the first time either a university or state attorney general has intervened in a RIAA file- sharing case, said Ray Beckerman, a P2P defense lawyer who runs the Recording Industry vs. the People blog.
The International Trade Administration and the International Trade Commission have each issued notices initiating automatic five-year Sunset Reviews on the AD duty order for persulfates from China and the suspended AD duty investigation on fresh tomatoes from Mexico.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted to its Web site a notice providing details on the enhancements to the Automated Commercial Environment account type for brokers that were implemented with the deployment Entry Summary, Accounts, and Revenue (ESAR) A1.
In U.S. v. National Semiconductor Corporation, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit vacated the Court of International Trade's final judgment and remanded the case to the CIT to determine an appropriate penalty for negligence and any prejudgment interest related to an underpayment of merchandise processing fees (MPFs) under 19 USC 1592 (See NSC III CIT Slip OP. 06-138).
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted a notice to its Web site announcing that the first fiscal year 2008 specialty sugar tariff-rate quota (TRQ) (i.e. tranche) that opened on October 24, 2007 oversubscribed at opening moment. The pro-rata percentage is .1687649 or 16.87649%.
In U.S. v. Inn Foods, Inc., the Court of International Trade ruled on remand from the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that entries filed by Inn Foods covering imported frozen Mexican produce from 1987 to 1990 were undervalued, and these actions constituted a fraudulent violation under 19 USC 1592. (See U.S. v. Inn Foods, Inc., CAFC 04-1035.