Qualcomm sanctioned $8.6M on 7 Jan 08; lawyers referred to State Bar

The Los Angeles Times (Bloomberg) story began:

Qualcomm Inc. was sanctioned and six of its former lawyers will face investigation by the State Bar of California for failing to turn over thousands of documents in a patent infringement trial against rival chip maker Broadcom Corp.

The penalty was imposed Monday [Jan. 7] by U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Major in San Diego after Qualcomm, the world's second-largest maker of semiconductors for mobile phones, and its lawyers failed to turn over 46,000 documents and didn't explain how so much evidence related to Broadcom's trial defense was overlooked.

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http://ipbiz.blogspot.com/2007/09/more-on-bad-conduct-of-lawyers-for.html

http://ipbiz.blogspot.com/2007/08/magnitude-of-jaffelerner-patent.html [Lest we forget, Jaffe and Lerner, the confused ones, praised Qualcomm for its use of the patent system. Jaffe and Lerner have no credibility in their comments on the patent system.]

Reuters reportedM:

A San Diego federal court on Monday [Jan. 7] ordered cell phone technology company Qualcomm Inc to pay $8.6 million to rival Broadcom Corp as sanction for failing to turn over hundreds of thousands of pages of evidence in a patent dispute.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Major also referred six of the company's outside lawyers to the state Bar of California for possible disciplinary action for suppressing more than 46,000 documents, mainly e-mails, in the patent case.