$1bn GPS lawsuit seeks out Qualcomm

Keeping Qualcomm’s Intellectual Property lawyers busy this week, a US homeland security company serving the transportation industry has filed a $1bn lawsuit against the chip giant.

Gabriel Technologies claims that the Big Q, and its GPS chip subsidiary, SnapTrack, “wrongly appropriated valuable intellectual property,” that was developed as part of a joint development agreement between SnapTrack and Locate Networks, the latter of which was subsequently acquired by Gabriel.

The disputed technology is described as refinements and enhancements to assisted GPS, which is becoming a common feature of high end mobile devices.

The complaint accuses Qualcomm of procuring more than 90 separate patents by falsely claiming ownership. Norman Krasner, SnapTrack’s then vice president of technology, is also is named as a defendant. Gabriel alleges that Krasner and SnapTrack began unlawfully patenting Locate’s technology prior to 2000, in a bid to beef up SnapTrack’s patent portfolio. Qualcomm purchased SnapTrack for $1bn in stock in 2000.