Broadcom patent to be reexamined

Qualcomm Inc. said Thursday that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office had agreed to take a second look at a patent owned by Broadcom Corp. that’s part of a dispute between the two companies over computer chips used in mobile phones.

The patent was part of an infringement case before the U.S. International Trade Commission against San Diego-based Qualcomm. An administrative law judge in that case said this month that Qualcomm hadn’t infringed the Broadcom patent. However, the judge found that Qualcomm had infringed a second Broadcom patent.

The patent office said it would look at whether there were previous inventions or other information that might affect the first Broadcom patent.

A spokesman for Irvine-based Broadcom called Qualcomm’s announcement curious.

“The bottom line is that earlier this month an ITC judge determined that Qualcomm was an infringer of a Broadcom patent, and Qualcomm has not sought reexamination of the Broadcom patent they were found to infringe,” the spokesman said.