Shares of Irvine-based Broadcom Corp. weren’t phased on Thursday after a federal judge ruled to halt a ban imposed by a government trade group on rival Qualcomm Inc.’s chips in cell phones.
San Diego-based Qualcomm, which is engaged in legal battles over patents with Broadcom and Nokia Corp., received a temporary halt on the ban during its pending appeal.
Qualcomm’s shares rose nearly 3% Thursday on the news. It counts a market value of about $65 billion. Broadcom, meanwhile, was only up about 1%. The company counts a market value of about $19 billion.
The hold on the ban was a rare victory for Qualcomm, which has lost most of its legal spats over patents to Broadcom in recent months.
The International Trade Commission imposed the ban as after finding that Qualcomm had infringed several patents held by Broadcom for chips related to preserving battery life in cell phones.
With the halt in place, cell phone makers, including Motorola Inc., Samsung Corp. and Kyocera Wireless Corp., can resume importing phones containing the contested Qualcomm chips.
The federal court agreed with one of Qualcomm’s biggest arguments over the ban: Those third-party cell phone makers, which use Qualcomm chips, were unfairly penalized in a punishment that was meant only for Qualcomm.
The judge agreed that the third parties demonstrated “a substantial case on the merits and that the harm factors weigh in their favor.”
