Comments on: Import ban slapped on some 3G handsets

Trade group says chipset tech in some phones runs afoul of patents at the center of Qualcomm's battle with Broadcom.

[jsmith1785]

Lawsuits

I see one more lawsuit, if Sprint, Verizon & the handset makers can't bring new products into the country, they should all band together & hit broadcom with a massive suit. Tie them up in court for years & drive them into bankruptcy.

[adlyb1]

Why?

It is a legitimate patent and fairly well defined one at that. Qualcomm has used it patents in the same manner, so why single out Broadcomm for this?

[solrosenberg]

Remember kids, patents encourage innovation

Yet another demonstration of the absurdity of the patent system. Broadcom, a company that doesn't even make EV-DO chipsets, can stop Qualcomm from selling Qualcomm's own EV-DO designs. Of course it's hard to feel sorry for Qualcomm, since they are one of the welfare mommas of the patent system too.

[Terrence Koonce]

This is why Apple's iPhone doesn't have 3G!

This is probably why Apple's iPhone doesn't have 3G support!
(which kinda is a bummer) But that has turned out to be a smart
decision for Apple being this ban is so close to the iPhone launch.

That would have been a scary thought, Apple's iPhone banned 3
weeks before launch because of a internal suppliers chip was
banned in the US due to patent infringement.

[i_am_still_wade]

Are you sure?

I thought 3G GSM was WCDMA whereas 3G CDMA is EV-DO.

Whatever the case, the only company that is more evil than Qualcomm is SCO. Qualcomm is not evil because they made CDMA (which in turn makes US cell phone quality inferior), but because they they are vicious over their IP. CDMA is good technology, it just requires us to have to build twice as many towers, which means more dead spots.

[michel.audoux]

Patents

Patents in standards used to be tolerated to reward innovation. I now observe a lack of transparency and a serious abuse of the system.