The Comcast-MaxLinear lawsuits
In the other still pending legal matter, Comcast alleges that MaxLinear breached its contracts with the cable operator by prematurely scuttling two agreements – including one that contains a no-sue clause – linked to the technical upkeep of millions of cable modems powered by MaxLinear which Comcast still has in the field. Comcast has argued that MaxLinear transferred its patents to Entropic LLC in an effort to void the no-sue clause and clear the way for Entropic LLC to sue Comcast. Comcast believes that the no-sue clause “traveled” with patents and therefore “forecloses claims by Entropic as well.”
MaxLinear filed a series of counterclaims that included allegations that Comcast pilfered MaxLinear trade secrets linked to Full Duplex (FDX) – a technology that is a key part of Comcast’s DOCSIS 4.0 upgrades – and then hired a rival chipmaker, Broadcom, to commercialize it. Comcast has argued that its engineers “independently created” FDX amplifier technology with another “trusted vendor,” which happens to be Broadcom. Broadcom has developed a family of “unified” DOCSIS 4.0 silicon for modems, amps and nodes that supports both options for D4.0: FDX and Extended Spectrum DOCSIS (ESD).
Updates in the court docket in the Comcast-MaxLinear cases have been inconsequential in recent months. On January 29, MaxLinear filed responses to court questions related to the contracts it held with Comcast. MaxLinear believes elements of Comcast’s complaint are now moot in the wake of the Comcast-Entropic LLC settlement.
Trade secret briefs
On February 6, MaxLinear filed a brief that reiterates claims that Comcast stole FDX tech from MaxLinear and then assigned Broadcom to develop products supporting the technology.
MaxLinear claims that it entered into a non-disclosure agreement with Comcast in June 2020 so that the cable operator could evaluate MaxLinear’s technology before agreeing to purchase it. The chipmaker alleges that Comcast then “went silent,” disclosed MaxLinear’s trade secrets to Broadcom, and then contracted Broadcom to develop and supply Comcast with FDX amplifier tech.
“With Comcast, the largest cable provider, doing business with Broadcom, Broadcom has made at least hundreds of millions of dollars while MaxLinear has been shut out of this billion-dollar market,” MaxLinear argued to the court. Comcast, which has already argued that it developed FDX tech on its own, must file its response on or before March 6. MaxLinear will then have until March 20 to file a reply.
