Court Favors Judgment for Qualcomm against ParkerVision

Case Filed: Jul 11, 2014

Origin Case: 3:11-cv-00719

Case Summary:

Jacksonville, Florida-based ParkerVision filed a complaint against California-based Qualcomm accusing them of infringing several U.S. patents covering methods and devices for down-converting electromagnetic (radio frequency) signals by energy sampling. The suit was originally filed in Florida Middle District Court in Jul 2011.

Patents-in-Suit:

The patents involved in suit are:

U.S. Patents Current Assignee[i]	Title	Issue Date	Expiration Date[ii]
US6061551 ParkerVision	Method and system for down-converting electromagnetic signals	May 05, 2000	Oct 21, 2018
US6266518 ParkerVision	Method and system for down-converting electromagnetic signals by sampling and integrating over apertures	Jul 24, 2001	Aug 18, 2019
US6370371 ParkerVision	Applications of universal frequency translation	Apr 09, 2002	May 03, 2019
US7496342 ParkerVision	Down-converting electromagnetic signals, including controlled discharge of capacitors	Feb 24, 2009	Apr 14, 2020
US7515896 ParkerVision	Method and system for down-converting an electromagnetic signal, and transforms for same, and aperture relationships	Apr 04, 2009	Oct 21, 2018
US7724845 ParkerVision	Method and system for down-converting and electromagnetic signal, and transforms for same	May 25, 2010	May 09, 2020
US7822401 ParkerVision	Apparatus and method for down-converting electromagnetic signals by controlled charging and discharging of a capacitor	Oct 26, 2010	Apr 14, 2020
US6963734 ParkerVision	Differential frequency down-conversion using techniques of universal frequency translation technology	Nov 08, 2005	May 03, 2020

^*Current Assignee information sourced from MaxVal’s Assignment Database.

As in Complaint:

ParkerVision alleged that Qualcomm infringed the claims of the patent-in-suit by using energy sampling in the integrated circuits of various receiver and transceiver products that Qualcomm sells to original equipment manufacturers (OEM), who incorporates those products in mobile communication devices such as smartphones. The suit named a few Qualcomm’s transceiver chips such as Astra, Bahama, Eagleray, Halley, Hercules, Iceman, Iris, etc. that are used in phones and other electronic devices.

ParkerVision demanded Court to enter judgment in favor and issue an order blocking Qualcomm from using the patented technology or award compensatory damages and a reasonable royalty.  

Case Proceedings:

According to Court documents, Qualcomm denied that it infringed ParkerVision’s patents and contended that the patents are invalid.

The parties filed motions for summary judgment regarding validity (filed by ParkerVision) and non-infringement (filed by Qualcomm). However, court denied the parties’ respective motions for summary judgment. A jury trial was held in Oct 2013 and the jury returned verdict rejecting Qualcomm’s invalidity claims and finding that Qualcomm infringed the ’551, ‘518, ‘371 and ‘342 patents. Following the jury verdict, Qualcomm moved for judgment as a matter of law (JMOL) concerning invalidity and non-infringement. In May 2014, the court held a hearing and granted Qualcomm’s non-infringement motion. Accordingly, in Jun 2014, judgment was rendered in favor of Qualcomm against ParkerVision.

ParkerVision has filed an appeal as district court’s judgment was not in their favor.

See 2014-1612 for more details. To get alerts on cases filed/closed, subscribe to our Litigation Alerts.

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[i] MaxVal offers Patent Assignment Alert service where subscribers receive email alerts when assignments relating to target applications, patents or entities of interest are recorded.

[ii] Expected expiration date. Patent Term Estimator is a free web-based tool that automatically calculates patent terms and expiration dates for U.S. utility patents.