After winning a patent battle against Apple earlier this week, Qualcomm is further asking courts to ban the iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR in China.
The messy altercation between the equipment company and the Cupertino, California-based tech corporation is nowhere near finished after Qualcomm cites possible patent infringement for the newer iPhone releases. This plea comes on the heels of a temporary injunction against Apple, prohibiting it to sell iPhones.
Ban Only To iOS 11 And Older
So far, Apple has shrugged the court order and continued sales of iPhone units, saying the ban was only applicable to devices with iOS 11 and older. That said, most of the versions have been updated to iOS 12, so the company reiterated the ban isn't applicable to these anymore and therefore continued sales. According to reports, the initial ruling didn't exactly mention putting ban on a specific version of the iOS.
With the new request of Qualcomm, Chinese market may have to brace themselves for a tumultuous rollercoaster ride. It seemed that the chip-maker is not through with the fight after securing an injunction against Apple that prevented sales of iPhones 6S Plus, 6S, 7, 7 Plus, 8, 8 Plus, and X — all devices that allegedly benefitted from the patent.
At the time of the initial legal war, Apple insisted that Qualcomm's argument was not applicable to newer versions of the iPhone, hence, there was no infringement involved. With this case in point, the ban wasn't violated.
Qualcomm's Second Request
Although a court ruling has yet to determine if Apple had indeed infringed, others said Qualcomm's second request was merely pushing for settlement negotiations with the other company. Historically, the two companies have been on each other's neck for the past years, and the iPhone maker seemed to be the winner thus far.
Aside from Apple, U.S. and South Korean governments are also watching Qualcomm very closely after they called out the company for not allowing healthy competition to happen. The Tim Cook-led business, meanwhile, accused the enemy of shooting up royalty fees.
