IRVINE, Calif., June 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Broadcom Corporation today announced that the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) rejected claims by GPS chipmaker SiRF Technology Holdings Inc. that two of its GPS patents were infringed by Global Locate, a company Broadcom acquired in July 2007. The ITC also found that the asserted claims of one of SiRF's patents at issue are invalid.
ITC Administrative Law Judge Paul Luckern issued his Initial Determination today, following a six-day trial last March in Washington, D.C.
Broadcom, through its acquisition of Global Locate, is a leading provider of GPS and assisted GPS semiconductor solutions, and is currently shipping GPS functionality into a variety of products including personal navigation devices and cellular handsets.
Broadcom's own claims against SiRF went to trial in the ITC last April. An initial determination in that case, heard before Administrative Law Judge Carl Charneski, is expected by August 8, 2008.
"We are extremely pleased by Judge Luckern's findings that we did not infringe on SiRF's GPS patents, and we look forward to Judge Charneski's decision in our case against SiRF," said David Rosmann, Broadcom's Vice President, Intellectual Property Litigation. "Broadcom's GPS solutions are part of our broad wireless portfolio including such technologies as Bluetooth, wireless LAN, cellular baseband and other technologies, which we are bringing together to drive the next wave of communications convergence."
Rosmann noted that SiRF had originally pursued four patent infringement claims against Global Locate in the ITC, but later dropped two of those claims prior to trial. Global Locate filed six claims of patent infringement against SiRF in the ITC, plus four claims in U.S. District Court prior to its acquisition by Broadcom. Additionally, last month, Broadcom filed four additional, separate claims against SiRF in U.S. District Court.
"We filed our May lawsuit after numerous good faith attempts by Broadcom to resolve the patent disputes between us and SiRF earlier this year," Rosmann said. "Prior to the ITC hearings, we were optimistic that we would be able to cooperatively resolve our disputes. However, as that prospect dimmed, we moved forward with additional steps to protect our intellectual property rights. We remain open to reaching a mutually acceptable resolution in these disputes."
About Broadcom
Broadcom Corporation is a major technology innovator and global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications. Broadcom products enable the delivery of voice, video, data and multimedia to and throughout the home, the office and the mobile environment. We provide the industry's broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art system-on-a-chip and software solutions to manufacturers of computing and networking equipment, digital entertainment and broadband access products, and mobile devices. These solutions support our core mission: Connecting everything(R).
Broadcom is one of the world's largest fabless semiconductor companies, with 2007 revenue of $3.78 billion, and holds over 2,600 U.S. and 1,200 foreign patents, more than 7,450 additional pending patent applications, and one of the broadest intellectual property portfolios addressing both wired and wireless transmission of voice, video, data and multimedia.
Broadcom is headquartered in Irvine, Calif., and has offices and research facilities in North America, Asia and Europe. Broadcom may be contacted at +1.949.926.5000 or at http://www.broadcom.com/.
Cautions regarding Forward Looking Statements:
All statements included or incorporated by reference in this release, other than statements or characterizations of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations, estimates and projections about our industry and business, management's beliefs, and certain assumptions made by us, all of which are subject to change. Forward-looking statements can often be identified by words such as "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "predicts," "believes," "seeks," "estimates," "may," "will," "should," "would," "could," "potential," "continue," "ongoing," similar expressions, and variations or negatives of these words. Examples of such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to the expected timing of the Initial Determination in our ITC proceeding against SiRF. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future results and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause our actual results to differ materially and adversely from those expressed in any forward-looking statement.
Important factors that may cause such a difference for Broadcom in connection with our ongoing litigation with SiRF Technology Holdings Inc. include, but are not limited to:
-- our ability to secure a favorable Final Determination in the U.S. International Trade Commission proceeding filed by SiRF against Global Locate; -- our ability to prevail in the U.S. International Trade Commission proceedings originally filed by Global Locate and us against SiRF; -- the ability of our patents to protect our intellectual property and products; -- our ability to enforce our intellectual property rights; and -- the risks associated with litigation in general, including the costs and time that must be devoted to litigation, the potential diversion of management's attention that may result from being engaged in litigation, and the possibility of adverse results.
Additional factors that may cause Broadcom's actual results to differ materially from those expressed in forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to:
-- general economic and political conditions and specific conditions in the markets we address, including the continuing volatility in the technology sector and semiconductor industry, trends in the broadband communications markets in various geographic regions, including seasonality in sales of consumer products into which our products are incorporated, and possible disruption in commercial activities related to terrorist activity or armed conflict; -- the timing, rescheduling or cancellation of significant customer orders and our ability, as well as the ability of our customers, to manage inventory; -- the gain or loss of a key customer, design win or order; -- the rate at which our present and future customers and end-users adopt Broadcom's technologies and products in our target markets; -- our ability to scale our operations in response to changes in demand for our existing products and services or demand for new products requested by our customers; -- our ability to specify, develop or acquire, complete, introduce, market and transition to volume production new products and technologies in a cost-effective and timely manner; -- our dependence on a few significant customers for a substantial portion of our revenue; -- risks and uncertainties resulting from Broadcom's recent equity award review, including potential claims and proceedings related to such matters, such as shareholder litigation and any action by the SEC, U.S. Attorney's Office or other governmental agency that could result in civil or criminal sanctions against the company and/or certain of our current or former officers, directors or employees, or other actions taken or required as a result of the review; -- our ability to retain, recruit and hire key executives, technical personnel and other employees in the positions and numbers, with the experience and capabilities, and at the compensation levels needed to implement our business and product plans; -- the effectiveness of our expense and product cost control and reduction efforts; -- the quality of our products and any potential remediation costs; -- the availability and pricing of third party semiconductor foundry, assembly and test capacity and raw materials; -- the risks of producing products with new suppliers and at new fabrication and assembly and test facilities; -- problems or delays that we may face in shifting our products to smaller geometry process technologies and in achieving higher levels of design integration; -- our ability to timely and accurately predict market requirements and evolving industry standards and to identify opportunities in new markets; -- delays in the adoption and acceptance of industry standards in our target markets; -- changes in our product or customer mix; -- the volume of our product sales and pricing concessions on volume sales; -- competitive pressures and other factors such as the qualification, availability and pricing of competing products and technologies and the resulting effects on sales and pricing of our products; -- the timing of customer-industry qualification and certification of our products and the risks of non-qualification or non-certification; -- fluctuations in the manufacturing yields of our third party semiconductor foundries and other problems or delays in the fabrication, assembly, testing or delivery of our products; -- the risks and uncertainties associated with our international operations, particularly in light of terrorist activity, armed conflict or political unrest; and -- the level of orders received that can be shipped in a fiscal quarter.
Our Annual Report on Form 10-K, subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, recent Current Reports on Form 8-K, and other Securities and Exchange Commission filings discuss the foregoing risks as well as other important risk factors that could contribute to such differences or otherwise affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. The forward-looking statements in this release and the related conference call for analysts and investors speak only as of the date they are made. We undertake no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statement, except as required by law.
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Broadcom Business Press Contact
Bill Blanning
Vice President, Global Media Relations
949-926-5555
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