ITC postpones ruling on Broadcom-Qualcomm issue

The United States International Trade Commission delayed its expected announcement of a remedy in the patent infringement case brought by Broadcom Corp. against Qualcomm Inc.
The ITC’s remedy in the case is now due Thursday, June 7.
The ITC has already determined that Qualcomm infringes on one of three patents cited in Broadcom’s original complaint.
The ITC is weighing a range of options. The most draconian, from Qualcomm’s point of view, would be a so-called “downstream” remedy that would ban the importation of handsets containing Qualcomm’s offending chips. This could impact Qualcomm’s customers and the network operators who sell those handsets.
The Broadcom patent in question, the so-called “983” patent, relates to the way certain GSM and W-CDMA chips conserve power when out of network range by re-initiating a search for service. Broadcom argues Qualcomm should pay it royalties for use of the patent.