Roger Fingas
As a part of the legal battle between the two firms, Qualcomm is reportedly looking to secure a ban on Apple's U.S. iPhone imports — a move that would financially devastate the Cupertino tech giant if successful.
The move is in retaliation for Apple's decision to withhold billions of dollars in patent licensing fees, a source told Bloomberg on Wednesday. The petition will allegedly be filed through the U.S. International Trade Commission, which can potentially act faster than federal courts.
In January Apple leveled a $1 billion lawsuit against Qualcomm, charging it with abusing its market dominance to obtain unfair royalties, as well as forcing chip buyers to enter into patent licenses. A month ago, Qualcomm began a countersuit arguing that Apple broke contract and wants to pay less than fair market value for licenses.
The Americas are Apple's biggest market — in the recent March quarter, the region generated nearly $21.2 billion in revenue. Most of that likely stemmed from the U.S., ensuring that Apple would want to fight tooth-and-nail against any ITC ban.
iPhones are considered imports in the U.S. because, despite Apple being headquartered in California, the devices are primarily assembled in China.
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Wesley Hilliard
AppleInsider Staff
Andrew Orr
Amber Neely
William Gallagher
26 Comments
Methinks Qualcomm is in deep doodoo...
some me of the patents they leverage are not things that should be patented.
but forcing someone whose buying a piece of hardware to then license your patents at additional and exorbitant expense?
i see an FTC COLLISION WITH Qualcomm. Pretty much case closed if Apple is being factual.
Intel needs to step up and cover the other radio needs for the iPhone. They are leaving lots of money on the table only being able to be used for a subset of the carriers.
Well this could be interesting, but I think the courts will see QUALCOMM actions as retaliation for Apple suing them and the courts usually do not take kindly to this kind of action.
Financially devastate?
With how much cash in the bank?
They certainly wouldn't be happy, but I think Apple would survive.
So Qualcomm thinks banning iPhone's in the U.S. will harm Apple?
I think Apple ditching Qualcomm for Intel, or someone else will do far more damage to Qualcomm than anything it can do to Apple.
Qualcomm is the ant to Apple's boot.