Sometimes, technology gets caught up in legal red tape. In this case, it's intellectual property law.

The US International Trade Commission is blocking the importation of chips made by Qualcomm related to WCDMA-the technology used in many 3g mobile phones. The chips allegedly infringe on several patents by rival company Broadcom.

Qualcomm was attempting to appeal the ITC's decision with the US President-who has the authority to set aside a ban. That request was denied and as of today, new phones that incorporate the infringing chips made by Qualcomm will be forbidden from entering the US. Previously approved handsets can continue to be imported into the US.

Verizon and Sprint-the two largest carriers affected by this ban-have employed workarounds. Verizon is paying Broadcom directly to use the patents on their handsets. Sprint is employing a software workaround on their handsets so the infringing code is not executed.

Personally, I think Qualcomm is getting a taste of it's own medicine. Qualcomm makes it much cheaper to use their own chips (which implement their patented technology) versus licensing the intellectual property and letting a company implement the specifications. Let me know what you think about all this in the comments.

Via wirelessinfo.com