Appeals court stays Qualcomm import ban

Qualcomm scored a rare victory in its tenuous battle with Broadcom. Despite losing its own request to stay import ban on mobile phones containing its chips, a federal judge yesterday granted a stay pending appeal that will allow third parties to import handsets into the United States originally banned by the International Trade Commission (ITC).

These third parties argued that since Broadcom only filed its complaint against Qualcomm, the ITC did not have the power to block the imports by companies beside Qualcomm. Judge Haldane Mayer on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit agreed. The stay only applies to all third parties that filed motions seeking a stay of the limited exclusion order imposed by the ITC on June 7. Those companies were Kyocera Wireless, Motorola, Samsung Electronics, Sanyo, T-Mobile, LG Electronics and AT&T Mobility. Interestingly, Sprint Nextel isn't part of the group but has indicated its support of a Qualcomm workaround solution. Verizon Wireless is the only operator to make a licensing deal with Broadcom [1].

For more about the appeals court ruling:
- read this article [2] from AP
- take a look at this release [3] from Qualcomm
- read this release [4] from Broadcom

Related Articles:
Nokia's timing [5] couldn't be worse for Qualcomm
Qualcomm has bad week [6] on the patent front