In the latest twist in the increasingly tedious Qualcomm versus Broadcom patent dispute, both sides have claimed victory.

Late Tuesday, an administrative law judge at the US International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled that Qualcomm has not infringed two of the three Broadcom patents in question.

However, the ITC also found that Qualcomm does infringe five claims of a third Broadcom patent, number ‘983.

Although Qualcomm maintains that the ‘983 patent is invalid and intends to ask for a rejection of the recommendation, the CDMA pioneer is exploring designs to replace the features accused of infringement.

Broadcom said it expects the ITC to issue a permanent exclusion order barring the importation of the infringing Qualcomm chip into the US.

In other litigation between the two chip vendors, a federal district court in San Diego has scheduled a hearing on October 27 to finalise the scope of a preliminary injunction to issue against Broadcom for alleged misappropriation of Qualcomm’s trade secrets.