Qualcomm Inc. v. Broadcom Corp.

What happened

Qualcomm pursued a patent infringement claim against Broadcom related to video codec standards. During the litigation, it emerged that Qualcomm had withheld over 300,000 pages of emails from its own email servers that were directly relevant to whether Qualcomm had participated in the JVT standards-setting process, a participation that would have required it to license the patents on fair terms. The documents had existed throughout the litigation and were on Qualcomm's own centralised email systems. The district court found that Qualcomm had intentionally suppressed the communications and imposed sanctions exceeding $8.5 million. The court also waived Qualcomm's patent claims and referred outside counsel to the California State Bar for professional discipline. The case remains one of the most significant US e-discovery sanctions orders and illustrates how centralised email evidence can be selectively suppressed with severe consequences when the suppression is later discovered.