Though the judge ruled that there was
an infringement he did not order a ban on sales of all Qualcomm
chip-carrying phones. The ruling can be appealed to the US courts
system.
Broadcom had filed a suit with the US International Trade
Commission asking for a ban on all phones with high speed wireless
internet connectivity that used Qualcomm chips.
Though Judge Charles Bullock ruled that Qualcomm infringed on
some elements of one of Broadcom's patents, it said that two other
patents involved in the claim were not infringed.
Both Qualcomm and Broadcom make chips that support the CDMA
technology standard which is popular in the US but not in Europe.
Qualcomm has separate outstanding law suits against Broadcom.
The Trade Commission is a federal agency and it will make a full
review of Bullock's judgment in February. That review can be
appealed to a full Federal Court.
Qualcomm has previously been involved in other patent disputes,
with Broadcom and others. In 2005 the company accused Nokia of
patent infringement. Qualcomm said that the Finnish firm had used
methods infringing 12 patents belonging to Qualcomm or its
subsidiary SnapTrack.
That case emerged a week after Nokia, Broadcom and other
companies complained to the European Commission about Qualcomm and
its use of patents for 3G phone technology.
Nokia, Panasonic, Broadcom, NEC, Texas Instruments and Ericsson
claimed to the Commission that Qualcomm violated Europe's antitrust
regulations
In the recently judged US case Broadcom had originally
complained about five patents, but two of those complaints were
referred straight to a San Diego court.
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