Qualcomm, a wireless chipmaker, announced today that new chipsets designed to comply with a state court’s patent infringement ruling well be in handsets before the end of March. A California court ruled last year that Qualcomm infringed on three Broadcom patents.
A federal district court in California ruled on Monday that Qualcomm must stop selling third-generation (3G) WCDMA cellular chips that were ruled to infringe on patents held by Broadcom. Qualcom is considering legal counters to this ruling which include asking for a stay of the decision and possible appeals.
“While Qualcomm will attempt to obtain further relief and clarity from the court on certain aspects of its order, the inability to obtain such relief will have an immediate short-term impact as handset customers transition to new designs for WCDMA products,” Chief Executive Paul Jacobs said on an analyst call.
The complient chipsets are now available to domestic manufacturing handset makers. Chipsets for devices aimed at international markets were not affected by thie ruling.