Irvine-based chipmaker Broadcom Corp. is pushing a federal trade agency to investigate San Diego rival Qualcomm Inc. for allegedly skirting a ban on some of its chips.
The move is a dig at Qualcomm, which had imports of some of its chips banned by the U.S. International Trade Commission after it found the company infringed on a handful of Broadcom’s patents.
The ITC agreed to investigate Broadcom’s complaint, which was filed back in November.
The complaint alleged that Qualcomm violated the ban, but didn’t say how, according to a Reuters report.
The ITC said it would start a formal investigation to see whether Qualcomm violated its June cease and desist order and determine if any further punishment is warranted, the report said.
The complaint is one of many Broadcom has raised over Qualcomm’s chips. It’s part of a series of legal spats that stretch back more than two years between the companies over cell phone chip patents.
In October, the European Commission launched an investigation into Qualcomm’s licensing practices as a result of a 2005 complaint lodged by Broadcom and a handful of other chipmakers and some cell phone manufactures.
