Sprint sees no delay to QChat

Shoppers at a Sprint store in a file photo. Sprint Nextel Corp said on Wednesday it does not expect any delay to its plan to launch QChat, a walkie-talkie cell phone service, despite a court ruling against QChat developer Qualcomm.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sprint Nextel Corp (S.N) said on Wednesday it does not expect any delay to its plan to launch QChat, a walkie-talkie cell phone service, despite a court ruling against QChat developer Qualcomm Inc (QCOM.O).

A federal judge in California on Monday barred Qualcomm from the U.S. sale of some products infringing three patents owned by rival Broadcom Corp (BRCM.O) but said Qualcomm could sell some chips, including those supporting QChat, through a January 2009 "sunset" period if it pays royalties.

"We're pleased the judge did not issue an immediate injunction on the patent related to QChat technology and we do not anticipate any interruption and delay in QChat deployment due to this dispute," Sprint spokesman Matthew Sullivan said.

"We're still assessing the impact but at this time we think all our handset providers will be covered by the sunset provision," Sullivan said.