A U.S. court on Monday denied a Qualcomm Inc. request for a preliminary injunction in a legal dispute with rival chip maker Broadcom Corp., Broadcom said.

A U.S. district judge in San Diego ruled that Qualcomm was not entitled to the injunction to stop Broadcom's development and sale of third-generation (3G) cellular chips, Broadcom said.

Broadcom said it and Qualcomm are to agree on a set of documents to be quarantined pending the outcome of the case, whose trial is set for October 2007. It said it has not misused any Qualcomm trade secrets.

The hearing at the U.S. District Court in San Diego, California relates to a complaint from Qualcomm accusing Broadcom of misuse of trade secrets. Qualcomm sells technology licenses and chips for mobile phones.

The companies have traded lawsuits in recent months with cases including patent infringement claims from both sides and anti-competitiveness allegations by Broadcom against Qualcomm.

Monday's hearing is expected to be followed by a court mediated meeting between executives of both companies on Wednesday and an opinion from U.S. International Trade Commission on October 10.

Broadcom asked the ITC to ban Qualcomm from selling certain

chips used in cell phones in the United States.

Qualcomm dominates the market for chips based on CDMA, the most widely used cellphone technology in the United States. It also sells chips and technology licenses for W-CDMA, a high-speed wireless technology being used in Europe.

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