Qualcomm, in its latest move in the ongoing legal dispute against Apple, seeks to ban the sale of certain iPhone models, including the iPhone X, from AT&T and T-Mobile.
Qualcomm previously tried to stop the sale and manufacture of iPhones in China, which likely would not happen. Will the chipmaker find more luck with this new development?
Qualcomm Seeks Ban Of AT&T, T-Mobile iPhone X
Qualcomm filed three new patent infringement lawsuits against Apple, claiming that the iPhone maker has violated 16 more patents held by Qualcomm. The patents cover technologies involving carrier aggregation, power management, and memory designs, among other things.
The chipmaker, however, goes further and requested the U.S. International Trade Commission to stop the imports of iPhone models that use modems from rival Intel. The affected devices are the iPhone X, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone 7, and iPhone 7 Plus that are being sold through AT&T and T-Mobile. Only the iPhones from these two carriers are affected because smartphones that run on the networks of Verizon and Sprint come with Qualcomm's modem.
According to CNET, Apple did not provide a comment on Qualcomm's latest move. The company simply referred to a recent filing in which Apple claimed that the iPhone is why consumers "fell in love with smartphones" in the first place.
"Qualcomm's paid advertising makes wildly inflated claims about its role in the development of the smartphone, but the facts show that it was Apple that put an easy-to-use computer-phone in the palm of people's hands, not Qualcomm," Apple continued.
Qualcomm vs Apple Legal Battle
It appears that the legal battle between Qualcomm and Apple has no ending in sight, as the two companies have not backed down from their respective claims.
In one of the more recent lawsuits that Qualcomm filed, the company claimed that Apple gave Intel unprecedented access to proprietary Qualcomm chip technology.
Apple, however, may have already won the battle if reports are true that future iPhone and iPad models will no longer use Qualcomm components. If Qualcomm loses orders from Apple, its biggest customer, it might find itself in danger of going under.
Qualcomm, however, has another matter to attend to. Broadcom offered $130 billion to buy Qualcomm in what would have been the biggest tech acquisition ever, but Qualcomm rejected it because it thought that the price was still too low. The chipmaker is now preparing for what Broadcom will do next, as the company said that it is still fully committed to the acquisition.
