US judge recommends SiRF ban

Author: Gareth Halfacree
Published: 29th August 2008
Comments (6) Stumble
A US ITC judge has recommended a ban on the import of SiRF GPS products, but the company denies wrongdoing.

A US ITC judge has recommended a ban on the import of SiRF GPS products, but the company denies wrongdoing.

Decent GPS devices might be harder to come by in the US soon, as a court has recommended a ban on the import of the popular SiRF Star III chip.

According to Engadget, a US International Trade Commission judge has upheld a complaint by Broadcom alleging that SiRF's well-regarded Star III global positioning chip – as used in pretty much every consumer-level sat-nav system on the market – infringes several patents, and will accordingly recommend that a full ban on the import of SiRF's GPS products is carried out.

While the news is clearly bad for SiRF, it's not exactly great for the rest of the industry – SiRFs chips are nearly ubiquitous, because they do a very good job of receiving and calculating GPS data in harsh conditions for not a lot of money. When I moved away from a no-name GPS puck to a SiRF Star III unit, I was amazed to find I could actually get a position lock indoors – something none of the competing products were able to do at the time, at least in my price range.

The hammer has yet to fall, however, with a final decision by the International Trade Commission to come in December of this year. Regardless, SiRF is already feeling the pressure with a 24 percent drop in share price since the news broke, and rumours that at least one customer is looking to switch to a competitor's product ahead of any ban being enforced.

For its part, SiRF is still denying any wrongdoing, and has asked for the US Patent and Trademarks Office to re-examine the six patents which Broadcom allege the company has violated.

Is Broadcom trying to bully the little guy, or did SiRF really take a bit of a short cut when making their popular Star III units? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
Quote Phil Rhodes 29th August 2008, 13:37
Yes because it's obviously much more important that Broadcom's CEO gets another ten Ferraris than that everyone has decent GPS.
Quote Bluephoenix 29th August 2008, 13:38
are they mad?

I hope that if broadcom wins it introduces a similar chip at similar cost.


ninja edit: if you want a GPS, Grab it now!
Quote Mentai 29th August 2008, 13:52
Ug that seems ludicrous to me, another example of when patents go wrong. The best product should win, not someone who called dibs on a concept first. If you created the technology you would thhink you would be able to make it function better than the competition anyway.
Quote LordPyrinc 29th August 2008, 23:47
And for next magic trick...

I shall request a patent for the process of approving patents. When my patent is granted, I will then argue to null and void all existing patents because their approval would be in violation of my patent. Wait... I guess that can't be retroactive. Foiled again!
Quote Bluephoenix 29th August 2008, 23:51
Quote:
Originally Posted by LordPyrinc
And for next magic trick...

I shall request a patent for the process of approving patents. When my patent is granted, I will then argue to null and void all existing patents because their approval would be in violation of my patent. Wait... I guess that can't be retroactive. Foiled again!

LOL

epic thinking
Quote seanap 31st August 2008, 03:30
That has (sort of) been done before. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/24/ibm_patents_patents/

Seriously though, how sad is that?
Log in

You are not logged in, please login with your forum account below. If you don't already have an account please register to start contributing.





Stats: 0.047 seconds