Some of Qualcomm’s chips have been banned due to the infringement of Broadcom patents. Credit: Qualcomm Incorporated.

A federal judge in California has barred Qualcomm from selling products infringing three Broadcom patents in the United States, but said it could sell some chips using the patents until January 2009 if it paid royalties.

Qualcomm Incorporated, a leading developer and innovator of Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) and other advanced wireless technologies, is reviewing the complex ruling and expects it will require further clarification from the court on various aspects of the ruling, including the effect of Verizon’s existing license agreement with Broadcom.

Broadcom shares rose as much as 5% after the news and Qualcomm shares fell 1.7%, but the trading reflected some investor relief that Qualcomm appeared to have a technology work-around.

The ruling provides a “sunset” provision that stays the order until 31 January 2009 for QChat and 1x/EV-DO products that were found to infringe any of the three patents by providing Qualcomm a limited license, subject to an ongoing royalty payment. This license is limited to products that were sold to customers on or before the jury verdict was delivered on 29 May 2007. The ‘010 and ‘317 patents apply only to Qualcomm’s QChat and 1x/EV-DO products. Qualcomm is continuing the development of work-around solutions for the ‘010 and ‘317 patents.

The judge also issued an immediate injunction on Qualcomm chips based on Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), a high-speed wireless technology found to infringe Broadcom’s video encoding ‘686 patent. However, Qualcomm expects to have hardware and software work-arounds commercially available in handsets before the end of the first calendar quarter of 2008.

For more information, visit: www.qualcomm.com