US Federal Trade Commission loses bid to revive Qualcomm case

On August 11, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit said the FTC failed to establish that Qualcomm's practices had an anticompetitive effect on the cellular chip market

By Jan Wolfe and Stephen Nellis

(Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday handed a victory to Qualcomm Inc , declining to reconsider an August decision that dismissed the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's antitrust case against the chip designer.

In a brief order, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said it would not rehear arguments over whether the San Diego, California-based company had engaged in anticompetitive patent-licensing practices to keep a monopoly on the market for modem chips that connect smart phones to wireless data networks.

On Aug. 11, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit said the FTC failed to establish that Qualcomm's practices had an anticompetitive effect on the cellular chip market. The FTC had asked the entire court to rehear arguments and reconsider the panel decision.

"The fact that not one judge on the 9th Circuit thought it necessary to consider the merits of the FTC's petition or to even ask for a response from Qualcomm validates the strength and clarity of the panel's thorough analysis and conclusions. We thank the court for its time and efforts," Don Rosenberg, executive vice president and general counsel of Qualcomm, said in a statement.

The FTC declined to comment.

 

(Reporting by Jan Wolfe in Washington and Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Chris Reese and Tom Brown)