14 DAY TRIAL // Qualcomm's request for a stay of the ban for its chips has been dismissed by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The situation will go on like this until the presidential review period is over.
Things have been going pretty bad for Qualcomm in the last period. Verizon has decided to pay Broadcom to license the affected patents, leaving Qualcomm on a hold, as the situation does not appear to find a solving in the near future.
The dispute over the 3G chips started a few months ago and still has not found a resolution. The International Trade Commission (ITC) decided some while ago to ban US imports of handsets which include Qualcomm 3G chips. This came after the company's involvement in a patent battle with Broadcom.
If the importation ban will be implemented, all mobile phones using such chips will have to be redesigned. For this, huge amounts of money will be spent by both companies over a long period of time. This means that mobile phone production will be considerably endangered and suffer from considerable drawbacks.
The companies expected to suffer greatest disadvantages are Samsung, LG Electronics and Motorola, among the nine phone models which will be affected. Verizon too has negotiated a licensing deal with Broadcom in order to let the mobile phones through the US in exchange for a flat fee for every unit entering the country.
The ban states that any handsets released after the 7th of June can not be sold in the US. This could mean that some devices will not be set for sale, although they are ready, for the simple reason that they run on Qualcomm's 3G chips.
Qualcomm has appealed to a federal court for a stay on the mobile phone chip ban. Moreover, the company will have to wait for a possible reversal of the ban by President Bush until the 6th of August.