The tense fight between Apple and Qualcomm rages on. The chip manufacturer is currently attempting to ask the U.S. government to ban new iPhones from arriving to the country. To a greater degree, it also wants stop sales for units that have already made their way in.
Qualcomm Strikes Apple With A New Lawsuit
Qualcomm filed a patent infringement lawsuit on Thursday, July 6, in which it seeks to ban certain iPhone and iPad imports in the country. In the lawsuit, Qualcomm says Apple was violating six of its patents on key mobile technologies, chiefly those that have to do with extending a handset's battery life.
"Apple continues to use Qualcomm's technology while refusing to pay for it," says Qualcomm general counsel Don Rosenberg in a statement.
The company also created [PDF] an infographic explaining how these six patents work and how iPhones use them.
Furthermore, Qualcomm says none of the said patents are part of wireless industry standards for mobile communication, which means the company shouldn't be required to license them.
Qualcomm filed the complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, which is also where other legal cases by both companies are taking place.
Apple stopped supplying royalties to Qualcomm on iPhones and iPad with mobile chips on April, marking the beginning of a messy legal battle between the two companies. In a separate filing with the U.S. International Trade Commission to be submitted on Friday, July 7, Qualcomm says all iPhones and iPads that contain competing mobile communication chips shouldn't enter the country.
Apple vs Qualcomm: An Abuse Of Position?
These new filings follow a lawsuit Apple filed in January alleging Qualcomm of abusing its dominant position in the chip market to ask for excessive royalties. The lawsuit questions whether Qualcomm calculates royalties based on the value of an entire phone or just the mobile chip component itself.
In short, Apple along with other regulators around the globe, think Qualcomm charges unfairly steep fees for the use of its patents, thus the idea that it exploits its position as a market leader in the mobile chip business. Qualcomm has become the primary supplier of LTE modems — if a company as big as Apple wants to ship devices with those modems baked in, it basically has to ink a deal with Qualcomm to provide said components.
"They supply us with a single connectivity component, but for years have been demanding a percentage of the total cost of our products — effectively taxing Apple's innovation," said Apple in a statement.
