Mike Wuerthele
Qualcomm has once again escalated the legal war with Apple surrounding modem chips in the iPhone and iPad, with the chip manufacturer now claiming that Apple is in breach of contract because of how it works with Intel — and what software has been shared with the competition.
The new lawsuit was filed on Wednesday in San Diego, Calif, courts. Bloomberg reports that the suit alleges Apple is in breach of contract regarding the software that governs how the modem chip that supplies wi-fi and LTE connectivity to the devices has been supplied to Intel, in violation of long-standing contracts prohibiting that exchange.
It is not clear when the newest suit will be heard.
A South Korean antitrust ruling in 2016 spawned the battle. Apple subsequently sued Qualcomm, accusing it of withholding nearly $1 billion in rebates as retaliation for cooperating with Korean officials.
Since then, Apple has ordered its manufacturing partners, like Foxconn, to stop paying royalties. Qualcomm returned fire and launched countersuits to challenge Apple's action.
At a hearing in August, a Qualcomm attorney said that the company has seen a 20 percent drop in market capitalization since Apple launched its lawsuit, and that another, unspecified client recently stopped paying royalties as well while waiting for the outcome of Apple's suit. At the same time, an Apple lawyer stated that the company is suing over 18 specific patents, and won't consent to adjudication on a worldwide FRAND license.
The Taiwanese Fair Trade Commission leveled a $773 million fine against Qualcomm over exactly what Apple is claiming Qualcomm is guilty of. The ruling also mandates that Qualcomm remove terms in contracts involving sharing of customer data.
Two days later, Qualcomm filed a lawsuit in a Beijing intellectual property court that alleged Apple infringes the chip maker's copyrights. At the time, it wasn't clear what patents were being asserted — but the revelations from Tuesday show it to be non-LTE modem related technologies.
On Thursday, Qualcomm declared a 89.7 percent decline in profits between the $778 million fine from Taiwanese regulators, and the ongoing legal scrum with Apple.
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20 Comments
Right... Total bullshit. They will be destroyed fully and completely and this is just desperation.
Management's greed and selfishness will be the company's demise. When QCOM crashes and burns, I hope every idiot executive responsible for this is not only fired/booted out of the company, but out of the industry altogether. They have zero business being involved in the roles they were in.
Burn Qualcomm to the Ground!!!
From the Bloomberg article:
On the first item, it is not proof that Apple was sharing secrets with Intel. I guess they plan to call the Intel engineer as a witness -- good luck with that. There are a lot of reasons why that might have happened.
On the second item, which is it -- is Apple sharing Q's secrets, or trying to steal them? This seems like two different lawsuits. The latter seems more problematic, but it does not sound like the competitor provided the information, so you're basically suing someone for asking a question.
Mostly this just shows what a nightmare it is to work with Q.
BREAKING NEWS - U.S. Robotics, long-time makers of the Courier Series V.Everything V.Everywhere, have upset the industry with the surprise announcement of a new standard, Z-modem.LTE, with additional protocols Z-modem.CDMA and Z-modem.GSM. In a completely new approach to CDMA access, U.S. Robotics utilizes analog tower hops through the CMDA network onto on LTE backbone, eliminating virtually all dependence on IP held by Qualcomm, Inc. Further shocking the mobile communications industry, U.S. Robotics has assured skeptical markets and investors that they now have the very solid investment support, "of one of the most powerful players in this industry."
Reports just earlier this year indicated that parent company, UNICOM Systems was attempting to position itself for a buyout, but had no serious interest. While no official change to financial guidance has been offered, shares were up over 90% in trading after market-close amidst rumors that Apple, Inc. has purchased a 15% stake in the company.
Calls for comment to Qualcomm, Inc. were not immediately returned.
At least one major blogger for WSJ.com opined that, if true, this Apple/U.S.Robotics deal could sound a death-knell for Qualcomm, Inc., and by extension considering Apple's reported stake in UNICOM Systems, could bode poorly for competing platforms who would either need to stay on a sinking ship, or pledge fealty to company partially owned by their chief competitor. While the industry did not take quite as dire a view of Qualcomm, Inc's future if the rumors held true, it was clear that game had changed, Qualcomm, Inc. had found itself somewhere outside the playing field, likely being regulated to a chip foundry rather than an IP licensing corporation.