A US federal judge halted an import ban on mobile phones by Qualcomm Inc, a rare legal victory in a long-standing patent dispute with rival Broadcom Corp.
Judge Haldane Mayer on the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Wednesday granted a request by several mobile phone manufacturers and AT&T Inc's wireless division to stay the ban the federal government ordered in June.
The US International Trade Commission (ITC) barred imports of new mobile phone models with Qualcomm chips after determining that the company had violated a patent held by chipmaker Broadcom on battery power-saving technology. The White House refused to overturn the ban last month.
The ITC's ruling applied to chips that are used in high-end phones that can transmit video and data at high speeds. Mayer's decision Wednesday will allow carriers and manufacturers to introduce new phone models later this year.
The order applies only to the seven companies that sought to halt the ban: carriers AT&T and T-Mobile USA Inc and handset makers Motorola Inc, Samsung Electronics Corp, LG Electronics, Kyocera Wireless Corp and Sanyo Fisher Co.
Sprint Nextel Corp was conspicuously missing from the order, but a spokesman for the carrier and a Qualcomm attorney said the carrier could sellphones made by any of the manufacturers covered.
"We think this is an important decision," Sprint Nextel spokesman Matt Sullivan said. "[The ban] was not an appropriate remedy."
Sprint Nextel has sidestepped the ban by selling phones that rely on alternative software. According to San Diego-based Qualcomm, those alternative designs do not infringe on Broadcom's patents.
Verizon Wireless avoided the ban by striking a licensing agreement in July with Irvine, California-based Broadcom.
Numerous companies that use Qualcomm chips in the cellphones they manufacture, including Motorola, Samsung and T-Mobile, appealed the ITC ruling. They argued that since Broadcom only filed its complaint against Qualcomm, the ITC did not have the authority to block imports by companies other than Qualcomm.
The judge agreed with the appealing companies and stayed the ITC's order pending their appeal.
"We are pleased that the Court of Appeals recognized the undeserved harm to parties who were not named in the lawsuit, and that our customers will continue to be able to introduce new products into the US marketplace during the appeals process," said Alex Rogers, Qualcomm's senior vice president and legal counsel.
Broadcom noted that the order does not lift the ban on Qualcomm, only on the carriers and manufacturers that rely on Qualcomm chips. It said it expected the ban would eventually be reinstated.
"We are pleased that Qualcomm will not be permitted to continue its infringement of our patent while [its] appeal proceeds," said David Dull, Broadcom's general counsel.
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
WARNING: From Jan. 1 last year to the end of last month, 89 Taiwanese have gone missing or been detained in China, the MAC said, urging people to carefully consider travel to China Lax enforcement had made virtually moot regulations banning civil servants from making unauthorized visits to China, the Control Yuan said yesterday. Several agencies allowed personnel to travel to China after they submitted explanations for the trip written using artificial intelligence or provided no reason at all, the Control Yuan said in a statement, following an investigation headed by Control Yuan member Lin Wen-cheng (林文程). The probe identified 318 civil servants who traveled to China without permission in the past 10 years, but the true number could be close to 1,000, the Control Yuan said. The public employees investigated were not engaged in national
ALL TOGETHER: Only by including Taiwan can the WHA fully exemplify its commitment to ‘One World for Health,’ the representative offices of eight nations in Taiwan said The representative offices in Taiwan of eight nations yesterday issued a joint statement reiterating their support for Taiwan’s meaningful engagement with the WHO and for Taipei’s participation as an observer at the World Health Assembly (WHA). The joint statement came as Taiwan has not received an invitation to this year’s WHA, which started yesterday and runs until Tuesday next week. This year’s meeting of the decisionmaking body of the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, would be the ninth consecutive year Taiwan has been excluded. The eight offices, which reaffirmed their support for Taiwan, are the British Office Taipei, the Australian Office Taipei, the
CAUSE AND EFFECT: China’s policies prompted the US to increase its presence in the Indo-Pacific, and Beijing should consider if this outcome is in its best interests, Lai said China has been escalating its military and political pressure on Taiwan for many years, but should reflect on this strategy and think about what is really in its best interest, President William Lai (賴清德) said. Lai made the remark in a YouTube interview with Mindi World News that was broadcast on Saturday, ahead of the first anniversary of his presidential inauguration tomorrow. The US has clearly stated that China is its biggest challenge and threat, with US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth repeatedly saying that the US should increase its forces in the Indo-Pacific region
RSS