Irvine’s Broadcom Corp. has an ally in its fight against Qualcomm Inc.: Finland’s Nokia Corp.
Nokia, the top maker of cell phones, filed a case against San Diego-based Qualcomm with the U.S. International Trade Commission on Friday.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Trade Representative upheld a ban on cell phones that contain Qualcomm’s chips found to infringe on Broadcom’s patents.
Like Broadcom, Nokia has been in a legal battle with Qualcomm after part of a cross-licensing deal over technology patents expired in April.
The complaint filed with the ITC covers patents related to GSM/WCDMA and CDMA2000 chipsets used in cell phones.
In 2006, Qualcomm filed a complaint against Nokia with ITC over six GSM patents, asking for an injunction against Nokia’s GSM phones.
The case, which has been narrowed to three Qualcomm patents, is set for a hearing in September.
Earlier this month, Nokia upped its business with Broadcom with plans to use Broadcom’s Edge chips for sending data in phones due out in the second half of 2008.
The Broadcom win was seen as a threat to Qualcomm, the leading maker of wireless chips.
