Two South Korean cell phone makers Tuesday won a lifting of ban on chips found to infringe on a patent from Irvine’s Broadcom Corp.
Samsung Group and LG Group, Asia’s largest cell phone makers, won an appeals court ruling lifting a ban on U.S. imports of their newest phones, according to Bloomberg.
The phones include chips from San Diego’s Qualcomm Inc. that were found to infringe on a Broadcom patent for a battery-saving feature.
Last year, the U.S. International Trade Commission, a federal trade watchdog, ruled the chips infringed on Broadcom’s patent and ordered the ban blocking imports.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said the ITC exceeded its authority in imposing a ban on the phone makers because they weren’t named in Broadcom’s complaint.
The court also ordered the agency to reconsider the infringement finding, though it upheld the validity of Broadcom’s patent.
The ban is part of an ongoing legal battle between Broadcom and Qualcomm, rivals in the market for cell phone chips.
