WASHINGTON, Aug. 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Broadcom Corporation , a global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications, announced that a U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) judge today ruled that products of SiRF Technology Holdings, Inc. infringe six patents related to improving global positioning system (GPS) processing and sensitivity. The patents are held by Global Locate, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Broadcom.
The Initial Determination containing the infringement ruling followed a trial earlier this year. A Final Determination by the full six-person Commission is expected by early December.
The infringement findings cover a range of SiRF products, including those incorporating the SiRFstarIII(TM) and SiRFInstant(TM) GPS architectures.
ITC Administrative Law Judge Carl C. Charneski's ruling in favor of Broadcom comes on the heels of a June ruling by a separate ITC judge, who rejected SiRF's allegations that Broadcom had infringed two of its patents.
"We are pleased that in two separate patent cases in front of two different ITC judges Broadcom has prevailed at trial, with rulings that support our position that SiRF infringes our intellectual property but that we do not infringe theirs," said David Rosmann, Broadcom's Vice President, Intellectual Property Litigation.
The six patents that SiRF was found to infringe are United States patents 6,417,801; 6,937,187; 6,606,346; 7,158,080; 6,704,651; 6,651,000 -- relating to extended ephemeris assistance (Long Term Orbits), calculating time in GPS receivers, enhancing sensitivity in assisted GPS systems, and implementing hardware structures for parallel correlation.
In addition to the infringement claims against SiRF in the ITC, Broadcom and Global Locate have sued SiRF in the U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, Calif., in two different filings, with claims of infringement of four patents filed in January 2007 and claims of infringement relating to four additional patents, including patents covering SiRF's multimedia processors and GPS receivers, filed in May 2008.
The May lawsuit resulted after numerous attempts by Broadcom to resolve all patent disputes between its Global Locate subsidiary, acquired in July 2007, and SiRF, which previously sued Global Locate in both the ITC and U.S. District Court.
"Prior to the ITC trials earlier this year, we had been optimistic that the companies would be able to cooperatively resolve their differences," Rosmann said. "However, when that hope diminished, we took additional actions to ensure protection of our IP rights. We remain open to reaching a mutually acceptable resolution of 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 2,800 U.S. and 1,200 foreign patents, more than 7,300 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 Final 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 the list that can be found at http://www.broadcom.com/press/additional_risk_factors/Q32008.php.
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 speak only as of this date. We undertake no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statement for any reason.
Broadcom(R), the pulse logo, Connecting everything(R), the Connecting everything logo, and Global Locate(R) are among the trademarks of Broadcom Corporation and/or its affiliates in the United States, certain other countries and/or the EU. SiRF(R), SiRFstarIII(TM) and SiRFInstant(TM) are trademarks of SiRF Technology Holdings, Inc. Any other trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.
Broadcom Business Press Contact
Bill Blanning
Vice President, Global Media Relations
949-926-5555
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