FTC drops case against Qualcomm over bundling modem chips with patents

The US Federal Trade Commission will not appeal to the Supreme Court in a case against Qualcomm about the bundling of baseband chips with patents. The FTC still believes Qualcomm has broken the law, but drops the case anyway.

The FTC has faced “significant headwinds” in the case and is therefore discontinuing it, the statement said. Presumably, the US government commission no longer sees a good way to win in the case. The FTC won its first case against Qualcomm in a lower court, but a higher court ruled in favor of the chip designer last year.

Qualcomm bundled the supply of modem chips into patent agreements and according to the FTC that was not allowed. The FTC felt that this policy made Qualcomm more difficult for competing chipmakers because the license terms stipulated that a manufacturer who released a phone with a modem from a manufacturer other than Qualcomm was still forced to pay royalties for the standard essential patents of Qualcomm. Qualcomm.

The judge ruled last year that the so-called no licence, no chips policy does not create an additional surcharge for the sale of modem chips from competitors and found that this does not undermine competition.