One More Time: Broadcom Sues Qualcomm

By Geoff Duncan October 8, 2008

One More Time: Broadcom Sues Qualcomm

It’s one of the tech world’s never-ending stories: infringement lawsuits between wireless chip makers Broadcom and Qualcomm. The two companies have been involved in protracted and bitter disputes over CDMA patents, with Broadcom even winning an injunction to keep infringing Qualcomm chipsets from being imported into the United States—an a judge recently ruled Qualcomm in contempt of that injunction. Now, Broadcom has filed a new suit against Qualcomm, alleging the company is using “exhausted” patents that are no longer enforceable under U.S. law to control post-sale use of particular wireless communications products—and that practice results in a double recovery of royalties and other frees to Qualcomm. According to Broadcom, the practice not only brings an undeserved windfall to Qualcomm,but also constitutes patent misuse since it harms the wireless industry and the greater consumer marketplace.

Qualcomm has not yet publicly responded to the suit. The suit was filed in the Southern District of California in San Diego.

Industry watchers see the new suit as yet another tactic in the broader legal battle between the two companies, in which both companies are seeking a legal advantage they can leverage in negotiations to work out patent licensing agreements.

Editors' Recommendations

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…

Mobile

Reddit is getting more interactive with new real-time features for mobile

Reddit app icon.

Reddit fans should soon feel more connected with their fellow Redditors, thanks to a handful of new real-time features that the service is rolling out today. You’ll now be able to see upvotes, downvotes, and comments all changing as they happen, without needing to refresh or visit the thread. Not only will the numbers change right away, but you’ll also see a nice animation to bring it to your attention.

Comment counts will also get the same treatment, increasing as soon as someone shares a new comment, while typing indicators will also now pop up when two or more Redditors are writing comments at the same time. This will be shown via anonymized avatars, so you won’t know who is typing until they actually share their post, but you’ll at least have an idea of how many others are crafting their own responses.

Mobile

OnePlus 10 Pro leak reveals more renders and specs

OnePlus 10 Pro front and back

As we come to the end of 2021, the next round of leaks 2022 flagship devices like the OnePlus 10 Pro have emerged. One of the earlier render leaks suggested a Samsung Galaxy S21-like camera module on the next-gen OnePlus smartphone. Now, more renders have surfaced online, giving us a better look at the upcoming device.

Tipster Steve Hemmerstoffer, who goes by @Onleaks on Twitter, has partnered with Zouton.com to reveal more renders and specs of the OnePlus 10 Pro. From the looks of it, the smartphone will feature a camera bump that will extend into the phone's metal frame on the right edge -- much like the Samsung Galaxy S21. It is also tipped to house three cameras, which are visible in the render below, as the company continues its partnership with Hasselblad on the optics front.

Mobile

How Google’s Magic Eraser changes history, one small human at a time

Erasing items in Magic Eraser.

Magic Eraser is certainly an apt name for the special feature you'll find in Google Photos on a Pixel 6 or Pixel 6 Pro. With it, you can magically erase elements that ruin the look of your photos, all with almost no effort on your part at all. That's the pitch anyway, and Google's presentation of the software technology during its Pixel launch event made it look very impressive indeed.

But is it? After all, it has been possible to digitally remove distracting elements from photos for a while, provided you had the right software and skill to do so. What Magic Eraser promises is the ability to do the same things without Photoshop, training, or endless trial and error. I've been using both the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro for a few weeks and have explored Magic Eraser's ability during that time, finding it great at removing small humans from your photos, but not so good at other times. Here's a close look at Google's photo editing tool.
Where to find it?
Magic Eraser is a feature under the Tools menu in Google Photos, but only the version installed on a Pixel 6 or Pixel 6 Pro smartphone. The feature uses Google's Artificial A.I. and image recognition prowess, which technically makes it possible for Magic Eraser to be used on other devices, but a lot of the feature's speed and accuracy comes from the new Tensor processor used in the Pixel 6 series. It's currently a feature exclusive to these two new phones.