According to the Japanese Kyodo news agency, the Japanese government is about to order Qualcomm to stop including clauses in its contracts with local handset manufacturers which restrict their right to bring legal actions against Qualcomm.
It is alleged that Japanese phone manufacturers, including NEC, Mitsubishi and Panasonic, signed licences for Qualcomm's technology which had a clause saying that the Japanese companies would not sue Qualcomm, even if Qualcomm violated the Japanese companies' patents.
It is also alleged that contracts with Japanese manufacturers also included clauses stating that Qualcomm could use the patents of the Japanese companies as freely as Qualcomm liked.
The Japanese Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is said to be alleging that these clauses infringe Japan's Anti-Monopoly Act.
Japan's FTC is said to be concerned that these clauses will undermine local manufacturers' incentive to invest in R&D, and stifle fair competition.
If Japan's FTC does make this ruling, it follows the recent decision by the Korean FTC that Qualcomm abused its dominant market position by offering discounts and rebates to local manufacturers.
The Korean FTC said that, in cases where companies licensed CDMA technology from Qualcomm, they were offered a cheaper price on Qualcomm's chips.
If a Korean company bought its chips from anyone other than Qualcomm, the Korean FTC found that the Korean company would have to pay heavier royalty fees for a Qualcomm CDMA license.
When the worldwide wireless industry adopted Qualcomm's CDMA technology as the 3G standard, Qualcomm undertook to license CDMA technology on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms. Offering discounts on chips and royalties could be construed as discriminatory.
Qualcomm was found by the Korean FTC to have a 98% market share for wireless chips. The FTC fined Qualcomm $208m.