Qualcomm gets chip-ban reprieve

A U.S. appeals court stayed the U.S. International Trade Commission’s ban on Qualcomm technology imported into the U.S., but only lifted the prohibition on third-party devices not Qualcomm’s own chipsets. That means carriers can continue buying handsets made from the likes of Samsung and LG Electronics but embedded with Qualcomm MSM chips, although, in an odd turn, Qualcomm cannot itself bring its own chipsets across the border.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the federal circuit passed down the decision today, saying Broadcom’s complaint before the ITC applied only to Qualcomm not to Qualcomm’s customers. The decision, however, has the practical effect of lifting the majority of the ban passed down by the ITC last June. Since most of Qualcomm’s technology already arrives in the U.S. embedded in one of its vendor customer’s phones, Motorola, LG, Samsung, Kyocera and Sanyo can sell them to operators and retailers and T-Mobile and AT&T can continue to sell them. Verizon Wireless was not included in the decision because it took out its own licensing agreement with Broadcom, and Sprint said it does not use the Qualcomm technology in question in handsets it sells.

The court granted the stay until the Qualcomm’s case goes through appeal, giving Qualcomm I temporary reprieve. While the ban effects Qualcomm’s own imports of its chips, something that Qualcomm said it does not do, the ban might have repercussions on phones manufactured in the U.S. but chips manufactured in foreign countries.