Preliminary U.S. Court Ruling Says Qualcomm Must License Key ModemPatents to Rivals like Intel

In a preliminary ruling by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Judge Lucy Koh has said that Qualcomm must license some of its modem-related patents to other chip-making firms.

Qualcomm has never licensed its essential network and modem-related patents to other companies. Instead, it has used these patents to earn billions of dollars in licensing fees. By not licensing its patents to other companies, Qualcomm managed to keep its competition at bay and ensured it had a monopoly in supplying modem chips to key smartphone makers like Apple.

Before this preliminary ruling by Judge Lucy Koh, Qualcomm tried to settle matters with the FTC outside of the court. The case pertains to Apple being forced to use Qualcomm modem inside its devices.

Qualcomm wanted to settle matters out of the court because it feared the result would go against it. Qualcomm and FTC had both asked Judge Lucy Koh to delay the ruling by up to 30 days so that they could settle the matter outside the court. However, Koh denied that motion earlier this week and instead delivered her preliminary ruling in the case.

The lawsuit is scheduled to go on trial next year so while Intel and other chip makers can rejoice right now, there’s a possibility of Qualcomm winning the lawsuit eventually and not have to share its key patents with other companies.

This is not the first time that Qualcomm has tried to settle matters with regulators outside of the court. The company previously settled with Taiwanese regulators by paying them $93 million and promising to invest $700 million in the country over the next five years.

It was this very complaint from the FTC that kickstarted the legal battle between Apple and Qualcomm. After FTC registered a formal complaint against Qualcomm in early 2017, Apple went ahead and sued Qualcomm for $1 billion. The San Diego chip-maker responded by countersuing Apple for billions of dollars as well.

[Via StreetInsider]

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Apple Owns Qualcomm $7 Billion in Royalty Payments

Qualcomm and Apple are engulfed in a major legal battle since last year which has seen the latter stop all royalty payments to the San Diego chipmaker. Now, Qualcomm says that Apple owes it $7 billion in royalties since it first stopped making payments to it.

Qualcomm’s lawyer says that by withholding their payments, Apple is trying to destroy the chip maker’s business. It has asked the court to drop 56 patent-related claims from the lawsuit.

“They’re trying to destroy our business,” Qualcomm lawyer Evan Chesler said at a hearing Friday in federal court in San Diego. “They’re now $7 billion dollars behind in royalties. The house is on fire and there is $7 billion of property damage right now.”

Apple has used its power to stop royalty payments to not just Qualcomm but has also asked its suppliers to stop paying money to the chipmaker. This has put Qualcomm in a troubled spot as Apple and its suppliers are one of its largest customers. The battle between the two companies has seen Apple completely switch to Intel modems for its 2018 iPhone lineup.

Apple has accused Qualcomm of unfair business practices while Qualcomm is accusing the former of patent infringement. It has even gone so far ahead to claim that Apple shared its confidential modem source code with that of Intel to help improve its modem development.

[Via Bloomberg]

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