Qualcomm, Broadcom settle on terms

Law.com reports that Chip maker Qualcomm Inc. said late this weekend that it would pay Broadcom Corp. US$891 million over the next four years in a with prejudice settlement of their long-standing dispute over patents and royalties. The agreement terminates all litigation between the companies in the US and elsewhere, with Broadcom also withdrawing its complaints to the European Commission and the Korea Fair Trade Commission. The agreement also includes an element of cross-licensing.

In this complex litigation, Broadcom had alleged anticompetitive practices on the part of Qualcomm, which had already successfully resisted three consumer class-action suits alleging antitrust violations following accusations that it had failed to license its technology on fair terms.

This settlement looks like another of those complex agreements that the parties would have been highly unlikely to make if they had not been locked in litigation in the first place.