A US federal judge halted an import ban on mobile phones by Qualcomm , a rare legal victory in a long-standing patent dispute with rival Broadcom, an Associated Press report said.
The Associated Press report said Judge Haldane Mayer on the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit granted a request by several mobile phone manufacturers and AT&T's wireless division to stay the ban the federal government ordered in June.
The US International Trade Commission barred imports of new mobile phone models with Qualcomm chips after determining that the company had violated a patent held by chip-maker Broadcom on battery power-saving technology.
The White House refused to overturn the ban in August.
The report said the ITC's ruling applied to chips that are used in new, high-end phones that can transmit video and data at high speeds.
Mayer's decision will allow carriers such as Sprint Nextel and manufacturers like LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics to introduce new phone models later this year, the Associated Press report said.
Numerous companies that use Qualcomm chips in the cell phones they manufacture, including Motorola, Samsung Electronics, and T-Mobile USA appealed the ITC ruling, the report said.
The judge agreed with the appealing companies and stayed the ITC's order pending their appeal, the reoprt further said. The stay applies only to the companies that filed the appeal. A comment from Broadcom was not immediately available.