US: FTC files opposition to Qualcomm stay request

On Thursday, July 18, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) pushed back against the Department of Justice (DOJ) by filing a formal opposition to the DOJ’s motion to pause a court ruling against Qualcomm, reported Law.com.

On July 16, the DOJ asked a federal appeals court to pause the enforcement of a sweeping antitrust ruling against mobile chip supplier Qualcomm, citing support from the Energy Department and the Defense Department (DoD).

Qualcomm, the largest supplier of modem chips that connect smartphones to wireless data networks, on May 21 lost in an antitrust lawsuit brought by the FTC earlier this year.

US District Judge Lucy Koh ruled that Qualcomm had engaged in anticompetitive patent-licensing practices to keep a monopoly on the mobile chip market. Koh ordered Qualcomm to license its technology to rival chipmakers, which include firms like Taiwan’s MediaTek and Huawei Technologies’s HiSilicon chip unit.