Mobiles get banned

The US International Trade Commission (ITC) has ordered that certain Qualcomm devices, and any future products such as 3G mobile broadband handsets that incorporate them, be barred from being imported into the US - because they infringe a Broadcom patent.

Last year, an ITC administrative law judge and later the Commission itself found that Qualcomm's cellular baseband chips infringe five claims of US Patent No. 6,714,983, which relates generally to power conservation in cellular phones.

Broadcom, which originally filed its ITC complaint in May 2005, has also pursued patent infringement claims against Qualcomm in US District Court in Santa Ana, California, where on May 29 a federal jury found Qualcomm liable for willfully infringing nine claims of three different Broadcom patents. The jury awarded Broadcom $19.64m in damages, which may be trebled by the judge due to the finding of willful infringement. Broadcom also plans to seek an injunction to bar future infringement by Qualcomm.