No presidential veto on ITC Qualcomm chips ban
By Colleen Taylor, Contributing Editor -- EDN, August 7, 2007
Marking a victory for communications chip maker Broadcom Corp., the Bush Administration on Monday declined to issue a veto of the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) order barring the importation of Qualcomm Inc. chips and certain cellular phones containing those chips that have been found to 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 U.S. Patent No. 6,714,983, which relates generally to power conservation in cellular phones. On June 7, the six-member commission issued its final determination and ordered that certain Qualcomm chips, and future downstream products such as cellular phones that incorporate those chips, that infringe the Broadcom patent be barred from importation into the U.S.
Although Broadcom expressed satisfaction with the order, Qualcomm opposed the ban and said that it would "limit consumer choice and access to mobile broadband services, be harmful to operators, manufacturers and the economy, and pose risks to public safety communications." Qualcomm then asked the federal circuit court of appeals to stay enforcement of the ITC's order; the court of appeals denied that request, prompting Qualcomm to then ask President Bush to veto the ITC ruling.
The ITC's June 7 order was subject to a 60-day presidential review period, which involved extensive review by U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab, who the president had previously designated to decide whether to let the ITC order stand or to overturn it through a statutory disapproval. On Monday, the day the order was up, Schwab opted to let the ITC's order stand.
Despite the setback, Qualcomm is not giving up the fight yet: The company announced in a statement Monday that it plans to appeal and renew its request for a stay of the ITC ban, and maintained that none of Broadcom's patent claims are valid or were infringed upon by Qualcomm. The company also said it is making moves to minimize the impact of the ban with new software that it claims is outside the scope of the ITC order.
"While we are disappointed with today's decision, we thank the administration for taking the time to review this matter," Paul E. Jacobs, Qualcomm's CEO, said in a statement. "We will pursue all legal and technical options available to us to minimize the impact of the ITC order on consumers, our customers and the entire wireless industry."
Not surprisingly, Broadcom said in a statement issued yesterday that it is "gratified" by the Bush Administration's decision to let the ban stand.
