Court lifts ban on third-party imports of Qualcomm chips

After receiving repeated blows in its long-standing patent battle with Broadcom Corp., Qualcomm Inc. scored a victory as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit granted a stay pending appeal that will allow third parties to import handsetsinto the United States originally banned by the International Trade Commission (ITC).

The stay applies to all third parties that filed motions seeking a stay of the limited exclusion order imposed by the ITC on June 7including Kyocera Wireless Corp., Motorola Inc., SamsungElectronics Corp. Ltd, Sanyo Fisher Co., T-Mobile USA Inc., LG ElectronicsMobileComm U.S.A. Inc., and AT&T Mobility LLC. The ITC had imposed the importation ban as a remedy after finding that patent held by Broadcom relating to a power-saving technique.

Broadcom had filed the complaint in the ITC against only Qualcomm, leading Qualcomm and the third parties that are "downstream users" to argue 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 Federal Circuit, however, declined to grant a stay with respect to Qualcomm's own imports. Qualcomm does not itself import the chips found to infringe Broadcom's patents.

"We are pleased that the Court of Appeals recognized the undeserved harm to parties who were not named in the lawsuit, and that our customers will continue to be able to introduce new products into the U.S. marketplace during the appeals process," said Alex H. Rogers, senior VPlegal counsel, Qualcomm.

Qualcomm will continue to pursue the appeal of the ITC's order with the Federal Circuit and seek a reversal of the underlying infringement finding.