Lawyers Face Sanctions in Qualcomm Suit

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Associated Press

By ELLIOT SPAGAT

SAN DIEGO (AP) - Chipmaker Qualcomm Inc. dueled Friday in federal court with its hired attorneys over who shoulders the blame for what a judge called "gross misconduct on a massive scale" at a past trial.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Major is considering sanctions against 19 attorneys who represented Qualcomm in a patent lawsuit the cell phone chipmaker filed against rival Broadcom Corp. (BRCM)

The possibility of sanctions has threatened the careers of attorneys from two Silicon Valley firms and prolonged a damaging episode for Qualcomm. The company's legal activity has helped it become the world's second-largest chipmaker for cell phones.

The judge said she was struggling to understand how Qualcomm and its lawyers committed "the fundamental and monumental error" of failing to share more than 200,000 pages of documents with Broadcom until after trial.

Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20071012/D8S7USI80.html

[aquart]

1. Wipe them out.

I am sick to death of corporate lawyers destroying, disregarding, and sabotaging evidence and GETTING AWAY WITH IT. Set a precedent. Ruin them.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

2. The extent of this false ruling was far-reaching.

It threw a lot of cell phone providers into complete and utter chaos, since Broadcome was the largest manufacturer of cell phone chips in the world. The potential economic impact was huge. Most cell phone manufacturers did not know where to turn for new chips and Qualcomm was making noises about suing manufacturers and providers. It was kinda like Linux and SCO, only with more lying, if you could imagine that.

They need to order Qualcomm to face the severest penalties and the lawyers need disbarment and jail terms.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

3. Qualcomm is marked for death,

The wireless industry has basically conspired against them for their decade of bullshit, their platform is dying and their largest customers Verizon and Sprint are making their future plans without them.

Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of assholes, who as we speak are lobbying Washington to build a Qualcomm CDMA network in Iraq on the US taxpayers dime.