Cliffhanger

It’s hard not to root for the little guy in epic battles. Maybe it’s because we have been trained by Hollywood that the underdog is always the more virtuous combatant in a battle, which of course always makes for a better story when said underdog triumphs in the end.
But Qualcomm’s recent defeat at the hands of Broadcom, with a little help from the ITC, is tough to stomach. Sure, according to the decision, big, bad Qualcomm did trample on poor, defenseless Broadcom’s patents in the design of some of its chipsets-but the fallout from the decision leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.
That fallout includes banning the importation of any new handsets that employ the chipsets in question, which is not only bad for Qualcomm’s sales sheet, but bad for carriers that rely on those phones to attract new customers or keep their current users. It’s also bad for consumers who are always on the lookout for the newest high-tech device.
Now Broadcom is not a patent troll like NTP, which managed to wrangle $612.5 million out of BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion last year over a patent dispute. Broadcom actually makes chips and has every right to protect its intellectual property.
But the ITC’s decision goes beyond helping Broadcom protect its IP and hits at the heart of the wireless market. Consumers will be impacted negatively by the decision, and that is not good for anyone.
Now, I’m about as qualified to give legal advice as Lionel Hutz, but it seems that forcing some sort of arbitration between the two firms that eventually would result in some form of financial settlement would have been a better way to go. Broadcom could be compensated handsomely for its IP, Qualcomm could continue selling its chips to needy handset vendors and consumers could continue to purchase the latest handsets.
Of course, this is likely to be the eventual outcome of the whole ordeal once the hard-headed combatants have time to cool off. As a wise financial analyst once told me, “In business, money cures all disputes.”
Now that would be a happy ending.