Court stays import ban while Qualcomm appeals
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(InfoWorld) - U.S. mobile users waiting for the next crop of phones could breathe a sigh of relief Wednesday when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit granted a stay on an import ban against handsets that use some Qualcomm chips. The International Trade CommissionÂ (ITC) ordered the ban in JuneÂ after theÂ Qualcomm chips were found to infringe Broadcom patents. It only affected future models, not current imports. If imposed, it could affect handset makers including Motorola, Samsung Electronics, and others, whoÂ filed motions seeking the stay. The latest move lets those manufacturers bring in the new phone models while Qualcomm appeals the ITC's order and seeks a reversal of the patent-infringement ruling. The fight for the stay was considered an uphill battle. Smith Brittingham, a lawyer with Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, said in June he could only remember one time when such a ruling had been stayed pending an appeal. âIt would be a significant victory for Qualcomm,â he said at the time. Last month theÂ Bush administration turned downÂ a request by Qualcomm to stop the ban. The stay affects the third-party companies that filed motions, which also include Kyocera Wireless, Sanyo Fisher, T-Mobile USA, LG Electronics MobileComm USA, and AT&T Mobility. The circuit court didn't grant a stay for Qualcomm's own imports, but Qualcomm does not itself import the chips found to infringe Broadcom's patents, according to a Qualcomm press release Wednesday. Broadcom went to the ITC seeking an import ban only against Qualcomm. The third parties and Qualcomm argued in the appeals court that the ITC didn't have the authority to exclude products imported by other companies. The court said the third parties had a substantial case and the harm they might suffer weighed in their favor, according to Qualcomm. Broadcom could not immediately be reached for comment. In July,Â Broadcom reached a deal with Verizon WirelessÂ that would let Verizon continue to import phones using the disputed technology. Under that deal, Verizon will pay Broadcom $6 for every handset, PDA (personal digital assistant) or data card that uses EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized) mobile broadband technology. The payments have a ceiling of $40 million per calendar quarter and a lifetime maximum of $200 million. As part of the deal, Verizon also will drop its effort to overturn the ruling. The patent fight is one of a series of intellectual-property disputes between mobile pioneer Qualcomm and Broadcom, a communications chip maker that has moved aggressively into the mobile arena. (Nancy Gohring in Seattle contributed to this story.) Â
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InfoWorld - U.S. mobile users waiting for the next crop of phones could breathe a sigh of relief Wednesday when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit granted a stay on an import ban against handsets that use some Qualcomm chips.
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A federal agency on Thursday barred the import of new models of cell phones that contain semiconductors made by Qualcomm Inc., because the chips violate a patent held by a rival, Broadcom Corp.
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In another indication that one of the most heated intellectual property disputes in the history of telecommunications could end up a near-wash for both sides, a US District Court ruled late last week that two major handset manufacturers will be allowed to export devices with Broadcom chips to the US, despite a pending patent infringement lawsuit from Qualcomm.
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Nokia , the world's biggest  mobile phone maker, said on Tuesday the United States  International Trade Commission (ITC) has ordered a stay of  wireless chip supplier Qualcomm's  suit against Nokia.
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In a court decision that could dampen deployment of high-speed wireless Internet in the US, Qualcomm has been banned from shipping cell phone chipsets using three technologies judged as belonging to archrival Broadcom.
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Wireless chip supplier Qualcomm Inc  said on Wednesday it would be hurt in the short term by a court injunction on the sale of chips infringing rival Broadcom Corp's  patents, but it promised to have alternative products in phones before the end of the quarter.
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The International Trade Commission will investigate whether Qualcomm is following a court order in a patent suit.
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An order prohibiting the import of cell phones with certain Qualcomm chips will be enforced while the chipmaker appeals a patent infringement case, a federal agency has ruled.
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A U.S. court on Monday denied a  Qualcomm Inc.  request for a preliminary injunction in  a legal dispute with rival chip maker Broadcom Corp. ,  Broadcom said.
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WASHINGTON/NEW YORK  - A U.S. trade agency banned on Thursday imports of some cell phone models containing Qualcomm Inc.  chips because of patent violations, but the decision immediately drew vows to appeal.
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Blog: The International Trade Commission has denied a stay of a ban it imposed earlier this month on the import of new handsets using Qualcomm's 3G chips.
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(InfoWorld) - A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that Broadcom could press forward with an antitrust case against rival chip maker Qualcomm, but on only two of the eight original charges, the companies said. Broadcom says Qualcomm has created a monopoly in the market for wireless technology standards such as CDMA (code division multiple access). The decision by a group of three judges in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit reverses a verdict by a lower court to dismiss the entire case. In August 2006, a district court in New Jersey had approved Qualcomm's request to dismiss all eight charges. Last month, Qualcomm lost another round in the long-running battle, when the Bush administrationÂ decided not to block a banÂ imposed by the U.S. International Trade Commission on the domestic sale of mobile devices using certain Qualcomm chips. Broadcom says Qualcomm has infringed its patents on the communications chips used in cell phones. And in May, a federal court jury awarded Broadcom $19.6 million in damages after finding thatÂ Qualcomm had willfully infringed three of its patents. That chain of legal losses helped push Qualcomm's general counsel, Lou Lupin, to resign in August. When the case returns to the New Jersey court, Broadcom will argue that Qualcomm has failed to fairly license the technology for cellular wireless standards, and ask the judge to eliminate Qualcomm's patent royalties and pay triple damages and attorney's fees, according to a statement by Broadcom General Counsel David Dull. However, Qualcomm said that the appellate court judges had merely upheld the two remaining charges on a legal technicality, and vowed to vigorously dispute them in court. Neither Broadcom nor Qualcomm returned calls for comment. Â
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By Jennifer Davies, The San Diego Union-Tribune  Dec. 12--In the latest round of an ongoing legal battle between the  wireless chip makers, the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled yesterday  that Qualcomm is infringing on a patent held by rival Broadcom.
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A U.S. appeals court on Friday said  Qualcomm Inc.  was premature in appealing an order by a  federal trade agency that banned imports of some cellular  telephones containing Qualcomm chips.
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- Chip designer Broadcom Corp.  said the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) denied Qualcomm Inc's  request to stay the regulator's recent order in the ongoing patent dispute between the companies.
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The US International Trade Commission sided with Broadcom on Thursday, ruling that all imports of cell phones using Qualcomm chips could not be imported into the country.