Qualcomm has opened a new episode of the fight against Apple for the collection of royalties of technologies present in the iPhone. After filing a request with the US International Trade Commerce (ITC), the chipmaker wants to again prevent the import of smartphones from the Apple and block the sale of those who entered the country.
“We believe deeply in the value of intellectual property but we shouldn’t have to pay them for technology breakthroughs they have nothing to do with,” Apple said. “We’ve always been willing to pay a fair rate for standard technology used in our products and since they’ve refused to negotiate reasonable terms we’re asking the courts for help.”
The complaint, announced on Thursday (6) by Qualcomm, involves an order to cease and dismiss. According to the company, Apple cannot import products with proprietary technology from Qualcomm without paying royalties. Apple has decided to stop paying the partner and filed a lawsuit claiming $1 billion for payments that it considered as abusive over the years.
Qualcomm’s application goes even further, and even mentions iPhone models that have entered the country. For the company, Apple has no right to sell them under any circumstances. The intent is “to block marketing, advertising, demonstration, inventory storage for distribution and use of imported products to the United States.”
“Qualcomm spent billions of dollars developing critical technologies that Apple now seems to want to be able to have access to for free or next to nothing,” wrote Daniel Newman, principal analyst at research firm Futurum Research.
On another front, the owner of the Snapdragon line filed a lawsuit in California court against Apple, asking for some sort of compensation for the inconvenience. It is not yet clear how many legal channels Qualcomm is using against Apple. The company says it predicts an investigation of the Chamber as of August.
But in court, the case must go on for many years to come. The most optimistic prediction is that the fight between Qualcomm and Apple will have the first chapter in the courts only in 2018.
“You want to not affect in unnecessary ways competitive conditions in the U.S. economy,” said Qualcomm general counsel Don Rosenberg. “We’re trying to toe the line. We believe in the public interest.”
