Broadcom and Emulex make a $58m patent licensing deal

CHIP DESIGNER Broadcom has finally signed a patent licensing deal with Emulex after the two firms were stuck in a bitter legal battle.

Broadcom, which has a string of patents in chips used in networking equipment, had been in a legal battle with Emulex over alleged infringement of its Ethernet and Fibre Channel patents. Now the two firms have come to an agreement where Emulex will pay $58m to license three patents and "related families".

Broadcom said Emulex will license US patents 7,471,691, 7,058,150, 6,424,194 and "related families for certain fields of use including Fibre Channel applications". The firm also identified the Emulex products that will use the patents as the XE201 (Lancer) ASICs, 16Gbps Fibre Channel host bus adapters, Fibre Channel system-on-chips and other Fibre Channel products.

Regarding the patent agreement between Broadcom and Emulex the firms said, "Emulex agreed to provide certain rights to Broadcom protecting Broadcom from Emulex patent assertions and the Emulex products are licensed to Emulex for the permitted fields of use, and are licensed to be purchased by Emulex's customers worldwide, and are licensed to be made for Emulex by Emulex's suppliers."

Broadcom said the US Federal District Court in Santa Ana has not dismissed the remainder of the litigation between the two firms, meaning that further deals could be in the pipeline. µ