U.S. Trade Rep Says Ban on Qualcomm's 3G Chips Stays

For many months now, courts and other government agencies have been ruling that some the chips made by Qualcomm for 3G cellular-wireless networking infringe on a patent owned by Broadcom. The most recent of these came yesterday, when U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab announced that she is upholding a decision made in June that bans any phone that uses the Qualcomm chips from being imported into the U.S.

Schwab's decision was related to a cease and desist order issued by the U.S. International Trade Commission preventing Qualcomm chips that infringe on Broadcom patent. Qualcomm had quested a presidential veto of the ban.

Wireless Carriers Caught in the Middle

The companies most affected by this ban are Verizon Wireless and Sprint. Or, at least this would be the case of Verizon hadn't done an end run around Qualcomm and agreed to pay Broadcom a fee to license the patents. This allows the carrier to import phones based on Qualcomm chips.

Sprint hasn't yet announced anything specific about how it's going to import the chips it needs.

However, Schwab said in a written statement, "We also understand that other market participants are investigating the use of a non-infringing software work-around. We believe that such licensing agreements and work-arounds will address in large part the concerns raised about delay in 3G network deployment."

Via Reuters