Eileen McDermott, New York
In a far-reaching decision handed down last month, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that the International Trade Commission could not extend a limited exclusion order (LEO) barring the import of Qualcomm chips found to infringe Broadcom's patent to downstream products.
In October 2006, a presiding judge of the Commission initially determined that Qualcomm had violated Section 337 of the 1930 Tariff Act and infringed five claims of Broadcom's patent number 6,714,983, which covers a modular, portable data processing terminal for use in a communication network, through importation and sales in the US.
In June 2007, the Commission in a majority ruling found in favour of Broadcom and issued the LEO barring the import of Qualcomm's infringing chips and circuit board modules or carriers containing them. The order also covered devices including handsets and PDAs that contain the chips.
But...