Qualcomm Countersues Apple in Patent Royalties Fight

Qualcomm escalated its legal battle with Apple, filing a countersuit on claims Apple made “false statements” against Qualcomm and was in breach of agreements with the smartphone chip firm. It followed Apple's January lawsuit against Qualcomm claiming Qualcomm gouged Apple for billions of dollars in patent royalties on technologies it didn't own (see 1701230067). Qualcomm sought dismissal last week of the FTC's complaint against the company alleging Qualcomm had a monopoly in baseband processors used in cellphones and other devices (see 1701170065, 1704040040 and 1704040037). Qualcomm filed its countersuit in response to the Apple suit in the U.S. District Court in San Diego. Apple “chose not to utilize certain high-performance features of the Qualcomm chipsets for the iPhone 7 (preventing consumers from enjoying the full extent of Qualcomm’s innovation)” and “falsely claimed there was 'no difference' between” the performance of iPhones that contained Intel and Qualcomm chips, Qualcomm said in its complaint: Apple “threatened” to not publicize the differences in chip performance, which would make “public comparisons about the superior performance of the Qualcomm-powered iPhones.” Qualcomm claimed Monday Apple made false statements about Qualcomm to undermine its reputation. Apple “has launched a global attack on Qualcomm and is attempting to use its enormous market power to coerce unfair and unreasonable license terms from” the company, said Qualcomm General Counsel Don Rosenberg in a statement. An Apple spokesman pointed to its statement on the January suit. The company said then that “despite being just one of over a dozen companies who contributed to basic cellular standards, Qualcomm insists on charging Apple at least five times more in payments than all the other cellular patent licensors we have agreements with combined.”