Qualcomm sues Taiwanese iPhone component manufacturers for damages

Chip designer Qualcomm is claiming damages from four Taiwanese manufacturers that produce parts for iPhones and iPads for Apple. It would be a violation of license terms. There has been a legal battle between Apple and Qualcomm for some time.

Qualcomm has sued Foxconn, Pegatron, Wistron and Compal Electronics for violating the terms of license agreements, refusing to pay for Qualcomm’s patents and violating other obligations. Apple is said to have instructed these manufacturers to stop making license payments to Qualcomm. According to Qualcomm, Apple withholds payments to its own manufacturers for the license fees owed by the manufacturers to Qualcomm.

In a statement, Qualcomm’s Don Rosenberg said he regrets taking this step against the four manufacturers, who have long been Qualcomm’s licensees, but the chip designer said he cannot allow these manufacturers and Apple to use Qualcomm’s intellectual property without to pay a fair and reasonable fee. According to Rosenberg, Apple is the world’s richest company abusing its market power to impose unreasonable licensing conditions on Qualcomm.

The case has been going on since January, when Apple sued Qualcomm over a dispute over the payment of license fees. Qualcomm claims Apple has broken the rules when licensing its patents. Apple wants some patents declared invalid. The Cupertino company is demanding that Qualcomm pay back a billion dollars and significantly reduce the amounts for the license payments. According to Apple, Qualcomm is abusing its monopoly on the market for mobile chips.

In response to this lawsuit from Apple, Qualcomm in turn sued Apple in April. The chip designer wants compensation for broken agreements and wants Apple to stop interfering in agreements between Qualcomm and iPhone and iPad manufacturers. Apple is also said to have incited national regulators to ‘attack’ the chip designer. In addition, Apple allegedly failed to take full advantage of the performance of Qualcomm modems in the iPhone 7 and misrepresented the performance differences between the modems and those of competitors.

At the end of April, Apple announced that it would stop making license payments to Qualcomm during the ongoing lawsuit, until a judge rules on the amount of the payments. Qualcomm believes Apple has unilaterally stated that the contract terms are unacceptable, even though they have been in effect for a decade for the production of iPhones and iPads with a SIM card.