A U.S. federal judge ruled on Tuesday that Qualcomm Inc must license some of its technology to competitors.

The preliminary ruling by Judge Lucy Koh in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California said that Qualcomm must license some patents involved in making modem chips. The Qualcomm-FTC case is scheduled to go to trial in San Jose in January.

The ruling came in an antitrust lawsuit against Qualcomm brought by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission in early 2017.

Qualcomm and the FTC had jointly asked Koh last month to delay ruling on the issue but the Judge Koh denied that motion.

Qualcomm has been defending its business model amid lawsuits from large customers such as Apple and Huawei Technologies, as well as dealing with regulatory challenges to its patent licensing practices around the world.

In August, Qualcomm settled with Taiwanese regulators for $93 million and an agreement to invest $700 million in the country over the next five years.