A federal magistrate has sanctioned six Qualcomm attorneys for mishandling evidence in the company's patent case against Broadcom. U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Major reported the six lawyers to the California State Bar Association for an investigation into whether the lawyers violated any ethics. The judge did not sanction the 13 other Qualcomm attorneys involved in the case. Major also ordered Qualcomm to pay $8.5 million to Broadcom, however another federal judge had already ordered the company to pay that much for Broadcom's legal fees.
Major claimed that the lawyers' declarations and other evidence lead to "the inevitable conclusion that Qualcomm intentionally withheld tens of thousands of decisive documents from its opponent in an effort to win this case and gain a strategic business advantage over Broadcom," according to the judge's 48 page ruling.
For more on the sanctions:
- read this article from the Wall Street Journal