Qualcomm chip ban lifted, but not for Qualcomm

US chip shop Qualcomm won a victory in its ongoing battle against rival Broadcom on Wednesday, after the appeals court lifted a ban on Qualcomm chips.

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit found that the International Trade Commission (ITC) lacks the authority to ban products made by downstream users of Qualcomm’s chips who were not named in Broadcom’s complaint.

Essentially, this means Qualcomm’s customers can now ship products using Qualcomm’s chips. Rather confusingly however, Qualcomm itself is still subject to the ban.

In June of 2007, the ITC banned the import of new 3G phone models using chips made by Qualcomm. The ban came into effect after Qualcomm was previously found guilty of infringing three Broadcom patents related to a battery saving feature in cellular baseband chips.