Jeff Parker, the CEO of the small Florida-based technology company ParkerVision, explained to Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck Thursday how tech giant Qualcomm allegedly stole one of the most revolutionary patented innovations in American history with the help of elements of the Obama administration — technology that was ultimately offshored to China, possibly giving America’s pre-eminent adversary a competitive edge.
“We are at the beginning of seeing corruption exposed like never before in America,” said Beck.
Long war
ParkerVision has spent around 11 years fighting Qualcomm over the tech giant’s alleged infringement of its patented technology concerning “down-converting” electromagnetic signals — a process now used in virtually every phone, wireless device, and Bluetooth device.
Representatives of the two companies apparently met in the early 2000s, with Qualcomm expressing an interest in acquiring rights to ParkerVision’s invention, which would have helped it connect phones to the internet. Qualcomm, a multinational company headquartered in San Diego, reportedly signed multiple special nondisclosure agreements in order to learn about how ParkerVision’s down-converting system worked, particularly its energy sampling technique, which differed from the voltage sampling technique previously used in conventional down-converting systems.
According to Parker, the two companies were unable to reach a licensing agreement and went their separate ways. A few years later, Qualcomm started using a revolutionary new chip for smartphones that created major waves, apparently taking the company from around 30% to roughly 90% market share. The phones that drove this growth allegedly relied on ParkerVision’s patented technology.
After spotting what appeared to be its technology discussed in a Qualcomm conference paper, ParkerVision launched an investigation and determined, partly on the basis of reverse engineering, that its patented technology had been stolen. ParkerVision filed a lawsuit against Qualcomm in 2011.
Parker told Beck that emails exposed during discovery showed frustrated Qualcomm engineers who were facing pressure to make a third-generation chip discussing a return to the ParkerVision technology.
Court documents reveal that the jury that saw that and other internal communications returned a unanimous verdict in 2013 “finding that Qualcomm directly and indirectly infringed” upon multiple claims across four asserted patents and awarded ParkerVision $173 million in damages.
Hellbound and Down 