Current Qualcomm General Counsel Donald Rosenberg. Photo: Diego Radzinschi/ALM

In finding Qualcomm Inc. committed antitrust violations last year, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh of the Northern District of California named and shamed former Qualcomm attorneys Derek Aberle, Steve Altman, Eric Reifschneider and Lou Lupin and current attorney Fabian Gonell as the "architects, implementers and enforcers" of Qualcomm's anticompetitive licensing practices.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rebranded them as cutting-edge business innovators. Judge Consuelo Callahan's unanimous decision eviscerating Koh's ruling didn't mention the attorneys by name, but the vindication for them and for Qualcomm was clear by implication.