George Bush declines to alter ruling requiring Qualcomm to pay royalties to Broadcom

Qualcomm, the big La Jolla-based cell phone outfit, hasn't been having a lot of luck in its long-running patent battle with competitor Broadcom. Last week, George Bush declined to alter a ruling by the U.S. International Trade Commission requiring Qualcomm to pay royalties to Broadcom for power management technology it's using in its imported chips. Whether by coincidence or not, in May and June of this year, a long roster of Qualcomm executives were maximum $2300 donors to the presidential campaign of GOP senator John McCain. They include V.P. William Bold; president Steve Altman; executive V.P. Louis Lupin; executive V.P. Marvin Blecker; Jeffrey Jacobs, son of company founder Irwin Jacobs; executive V.P. Roberto Padovani ($1500); V.P. Donald Jones ($1000); executive V.P. Daniel Sullivan; CFO William Keitel; Qualcomm Wireless Business Solutions unit president Joan Waltman; and CEO Paul Jacobs, another son of Irwin's. . . . Democratic assemblywoman Lori Saldaña sends word via a spokesman that the state recovered $10,000 from the at-fault driver who crashed into her state-owned 2005 Honda Accord Hybrid in December 2005. The balance of $2199 in resulting damages, he says, came from a "fund paid into by the assemblymembers for this purpose."