By Benjamin Pimentel
Broadcom Corp. (BRCM) said late Monday that it has filed a
lawsuit against Emulex Corp. (ELX), accusing the networking gear
maker of patent infringement.
Shares of Emulex fell about 3% in after-hours trading, while
Broadcom shares were trading flat.
In a complaint filed with the U.S. District Court for the
Central District of California, Broadcom alleged that Emulex
infringes on 10 of its patents, covering a "broad range of high
speed data and storage networking technologies."
The suit comes about two months after Broadcom withdrew its
unsolicited bid for Emulex after a bitter takeover battle.
Broadcom, an Irvine-Calif.-based semiconductor company, designs
chips for use across the communications spectrum, from networking
to television sets to wireless handsets.
Its bid to buy Emulex was widely seen as Broadcom's attempt to
plug a hole in its portfolio with Emulex, which makes so-called
Fibre Channel chip products used in storage networking.
Broadcom said it discovered the alleged patent violations by
Emulex as it was developing its own plans for the fibre channel
over ethernet market.
"We discovered that Emulex is infringing multiple Broadcom
patents in an effort to use Broadcom technology to compete against
both our existing and future products," David Rosmann, Broadcom's
vice president for intellectual property litigation, said in a
statement.
"We believe Emulex is infringing a broad range of Broadcom
patents; we are concerned that Emulex's infringement is pervasive,"
he added.
Broadcom said it is seeking "monetary damages and injunctive
relief to stop Emulex's continued infringement."
Representatives from Emulex couldn't immediately be reached for
comment.
-By Benjamin Pimentel; 415-439-6400;
AskNewswires@dowjones.com