A federal court has dismissed San Diego-based chipmaker Qualcomm Inc.’s appeal of a ban on phones that contain Qualcomm chips found to infringe on rival Broadcom Corp.’s patents.
The U.S. Court of Appeals said it dismissed the appeal because it lacked jurisdiction over the order issued by the International Trade Commission, a federal trade watchdog, according to a Reuters report.
In June, the ITC banned Qualcomm and phone makers from importing the contested chips. It also prevents Qualcomm from designing the chips into next generation phones or supporting the testing and debugging of phones that already contain them.
The ban is under review by the U.S. Trade representative and the president. The White House has until Aug. 6 to either let the ban stand or veto it.
Industry watchers say the president is unlikely to veto, given his administration’s long-running stance on protecting intellectual property abroad.
The White House also has a strong track record of upholding ITC decisions.
Existing phone models in the U.S. that contain the chips are excluded from the order.
Verizon Wireless, a unit of Verizon Communications Inc., inked a deal with Broadcom Thursday that gets around the ban.
Verizon agreed to pay Broadcom a $6 per phone royalty to continue to use Qualcomm’s chips in its phones and personal digital assistants.
Qualcomm rejected a similar deal with Broadcom.
