President Bush’s administration has said that it will not veto a decision by the International Trade Commission that imposes a ban on importing some new 3G handsets that use Qualcomm (Nasdaq:QCOM) technology which infringes patents owned by Broadcom. The ban goes into effect today, notes CNet, and adds that Qualcomm refuses to throw in the towel: “It’s still working on an appeal and stay request with the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. Last month, the appeals court said it didn’t have jurisdiction in the case…Qualcomm also said it is working closely with its customers and the operators on implementing new software that will provide a work-around to the patents.” I reckon this is about the last major news we’ll hear about this because Qualcomm is out of options—it will be a tough slog to get the decision overturned on appeal. Companies are assuming the ban will stay in place and acting accordingly, either by developing work-arounds or simply paying the license fees.
Update: The WSJ has a post on this, and quotes an anonymous source as saying that “AT&T Inc. had reached a licensing deal with Broadcom. While the scope of the arrangement isn’t clear, AT&T likely will be able to import new 3G phones”. Sprint claims to have developed a work-around which will let it continue to import the latest handsets.