Davey Winder
Saturday, 09 August 2008 20:41
IT Policy -
Regulation
Page 1 of 2
A US International Trade Commission ruling against SiRF Technology Holdings concerning six patents held by Broadcom subsidiary Global Locate says that all are valid, enforceable and have been infringed. The initial determination covers products incorporating SiRFstarIII GPS architectures which include devices from Garmin, Mio, Motorola, Navman, Sony and TomTom amongst many others...
The Global Positioning System, a constellation of up to 32 Medium Earth
Orbiting satellites, was born out of a military need. Developed by the
United States Department of Defence, NAVSTAR-GPS is more commonly known
just as GPS these days.
Managed by the United States Air Force 50th
Space Wing, GPS was made available for civilian use after President Ronald Reagan issued a 1983 directive that it should be used for
the common good. The rest is, as they say, history.
Where would we be, you might ask, without GPS Satnav for our cars
today? The answer, at least in my case, is almost certainly lost.
The military history behind GPS is kind of apt, given that two of the
giants of the 21st Century GPS industry appear to be at war.
Things started going pear-shaped when GPS chipmaker SiRF Technology
Holdings claimed that rival GPS chip outfit Global Locate, which had
earlier been acquired by Broadcom, had infringed upon four of its
patents. Two of the claims were dropped by SiRF before the case went
to trial.
Following a six day trial, ITC Administrative Law Judge Paul Luckern
not only rejected the patent infringement claims, but also found that
the asserted claims of one of those patents at issue were actually
invalid.
Back in April, a month after the SiRF allegations were debated in
court, Broadcom's own patent infringement claims against SiRF went to
trial. Global Locate had filed six claims of patent infringement
against SiRF in the ITC.
Now Judge Carl C Charneski has determined that SiRF has infringed on
six patents related to technology that improves GPS processing and
sensitivity. The ITC Initial Determination applies to those SiRF
products which incorporate the SiRFstarIII and SiRFInstant GPS
architectures.
What are the specific patents involved, and what does Broadcom Vice
President David Rosmann have to say about the GPS wars? Find out on
page 2...
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