The chances of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit approving a nationwide class of some 250 million cellphone purchasers against Qualcomm Inc. sounded close to zero Monday morning.

But a Ninth Circuit panel featuring Judges Jay Bybee and Ryan Nelson wasn’t ruling out a California-only antitrust class, or even including other states with similar antitrust laws, which could still be worth billions of dollars.