Broadcom says Qualcomm violated standards duty

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Broadcom Corp. said on Thursday a U.S. court had adopted a jury finding that rival Qualcomm Inc. had violated its duty to disclose patents to an industry standards body and therefore waived its rights to enforce two patents related to video compression.

Wireless chip developers Broadcom and Qualcomm have been involved in several patent infringement disputes including Broadcom seeking an import ban on phones with certain Qualcomm chips.

The companies had recently agreed to dismiss all upcoming cases scheduled to be heard in a San Diego federal court but their agreement did not cover the video compression technology case which a jury decided in January.

The U.S. District Court is expected to hear arguments on the appropriate remedy in the case May 2, the companies said.

Qualcomm said the court found that its failure to disclose its patents to the technology standard setting body did not break any written rules but went against its members' general understanding of how these processes work.

"We're disappointed and we're troubled by the reasoning articulated as we think it has broader precedential problems," said Qualcomm general counsel Lou Lupin.

The U.S. International Trade Commission heard arguments on Wednesday and Thursday in Washington over Broadcom's request for a ban on U.S. Qualcomm chip sales to remedy a violation of a Broadcom patent for a battery-saving cellphone technology.

Qualcomm a provider of technology licenses and chips for mobile phones, also faces legal disputes with several other companies besides Broadcom.

It is in talks with Nokia to renegotiate a licensing contract that expires in early April and it also faces a European regulatory complaint about its competitive practices from several large wireless companies.