The U.S. International Trade Commission has issued a ban on all new models of cellphones containing patent-infrininging chips from Qualcomm. The chips are those used to connect to 3G networks, specifically EV-DO and WCDMA, and violate patents held by Broadcom.
Any model already on sale in the US (up until Thursday 7th - yesterday) will be exempt from the ban and can still be sold. Anything new, however, cannot be imported.
The irony in this is that the iPhone, which has been widely criticized for not being 3G, is exempt. This puts the screws on Verizon and Sprint, who need some kind of feature advantage to compete with Apple's new phone.
The telcos seem more concerned than the handset manufacturers. "It's a bad order for the industry and for the millions and millions of wireless consumers who depend on wireless communications," said Nancy Stark of Verizon, "It's really going to freeze innovation, or it could."
Motorola and Samsung, who use Qualcomm chipsets in their phones, remain sanguine. "All of our current phones will not be affected, and we've been working actively with our suppliers and customers to ensure we will have a continued, uninterrupted supply of future mobile phone models," said Kim Titus of Samsung.
UPDATE: Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs is seeking a stay and then a reversal of this ruling. The company will appeal to the Bush administration to have the ruling overturned, saying the ITC has overstepped its authority.
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