Qualcomm has persuaded the us trade department to consider imposing an import ban on apple's iPhone, which USES Intel chips, but the company appears to be hoping for compromise measures to protect its dominance in the next generation of mobile technology.

The us trade commission said on Wednesday it would closely follow a judge's recommendation in September that an import ban would hurt the us's competitive edge in the development of the next generation of 5G mobile technology. They will also look at the judge's finding that apple violated one of qualcomm's three patents. But the case also confirmed that apple did not infringe two other qualcomm patents.

Qualcomm and apple, both up less than 1 per cent in after-hours trading, also closed the day in red.

The ITC said it would announce a final ruling on February 19. At the same time, they want to know a range of questions, including: how long will it take apple to bypass its patented power-saving features? Is a limited ban needed? What national security concerns might exist? They also wanted to learn more about Intel's announcement that it would withdraw from the high-end chip market if an import ban was imposed.

Qualcomm has taken advantage of the company's patents to impose import bans on some iphones. Apple argues qualcomm's fees are too high and that the chip company's profits have been hurt by its refusal to pay anything more than a year ago.

It is one of dozens of patent lawsuits the two giants have launched around the world. Qualcomm announced Monday that a Chinese court has issued an injunction against some iPhone models.