We had always understood that a US court would have the last word on the ITC battle between Qualcomm and Broadcom, and we had noted that in technological patent battles, courts tend to leave the status quo in place until such time as an appeal can be heard. And this is exactly what has happened in the case where Qualcomm has been found to infringe Broadcom power saving patents in its CDMA chips, by the International Trade Commission.
Qualcomm itself cannot import the chips, then again it never does, but those companies that have filed motions seeking a stay on the ITC ban are now allowed to bring them into the US ‘ including Kyocera, Motorola, Samsung, Sanyo, T-Mobile, LG Electronics, and AT&T Mobility.
That might put into question the money that Verizon paid to Broadcom to license the technologies so that it would be the only one importing the new CDMA based handsets, although it is likely that this deal will stand, and if the appeal is upheld, these other companies will all have to pay Broadcom royalties similar, and likely larger, than those paid by Verizon.
Qualcomm argued that the ITC lacked the authority to issue an order excluding products imported by persons other than Qualcomm. In granting the stay, the Federal Circuit agreed that the third parties demonstrated ‘a substantial case on the merits and that the harm factors weigh in their favor.’
The appeals court process could take nine to 18 months, according to Qualcomm, and this decision will mean that its revenues will not be hit within that period. However the deal it struck earlier in the year for Motorola to use Qualcomm chips as the basis for many of its future devices, has now been effectively cancelled because of this IPR fuss. Motorola said it plans to remove Qualcomm from its third-generation roadmap in favor of its old silicon unit Freescale, for now, and Texas Instruments in the second half of 2008.
The loss of that deal did much to take the shine of the good news from the courtroom success on US stock markets.
Nokia also weighed in this week with comments about the forthcoming ITC case against it by Qualcomm, pointing out that three of the patents in the case have now been dropped and that one of the remaining patents Qualcomm has attempted to withdraw from the GSM patent pool. Nokia insists both that it does not infringe the patents and that they are invalid, and argues that Qualcomm should not be able to seek an exclusionary order for patents declared essential to support a standard. The hearing has just begun this week.