Broadcom and Verizon Wireless announced a licensing agreement that permits the continued importation and sale by Verizon Wireless of mobile devices that are the subject of the current litigation between Broadcom and Qualcomm before the U.S. International Trade Commission.

The agreement allows Verizon Wireless to sell new handsets and other wireless devices, ensuring the availability of the latest cell phone technology in handsets and personal digital assistants (PDAs) to consumers and businesses. Under the agreement, Verizon Wireless will make payments to Broadcom at a rate of $6.00 for each 1xEV-DO handset, PDA or data card sold after the effective date, subject to a maximum payment of $40 million per calendar quarter and a lifetime maximum payment of $200 million. The agreement provides Verizon a license to the six Broadcom patents currently being litigated between Broadcom and Qualcomm. Other terms and conditions of the agreement are confidential.

"We are pleased to have worked out an agreement with Broadcom to ensure continued delivery of new and innovative products to our customers," said Lowell C. McAdam, President and Chief Executive Officer of Verizon Wireless. "A market-based solution, like the one our two companies have announced today, is the most effective way to resolve these kinds of intellectual property issues."

Last year, an ITC administrative law judge and later the Commission itself found that Qualcomm's cellular baseband chips infringe five claims of Broadcom's U.S. Patent No. 6,714,983, which relates generally to power conservation in cellular phones. On June 7, 2007 the Commission issued its Final Determination on a remedy for Qualcomm's infringement, ordering that certain Qualcomm chips that infringe the patent, and future downstream products such as cellular phones that incorporate those chips, be barred from importation into the United States.