Qualcomm fails to overturn US import ban

President Bush holds onto veto

Qualcomm seems out of options in the ongoing patent dispute with Broadcom, having failed to get the president to overrule the court-imposed ban on the import of phones containing chips which infringe Broadcom's patents.

Even its attempt to get the ban rescinded on safety grounds has fallen on deaf ears: "After extensive review, [the Department of Homeland Security] has advised that it does not believe there are public safety risks sufficient to justify disapproval of the [U.S. International Trade Commission's] limited exclusion order,” U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab wrote in her decision.

The fact that Broadcom has offered royalty-free licensing to public safety organizations helped, along with the news that Verizon has agreed to pay Broadcom $6 per handset to keep the technology flowing to its customers at least.

Asian manufacturers in possession of the latest Qualcomm chips are saying they've worked around the patent problems, so should be able to ship phones to the US very soon despite the ban.

Meanwhile Qualcomm is still maintaining it has not infringed any patents, and will be appealing against the judgement and subsequent ban.®