German court rules against Qualcomm in ongoing Apple feud

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Qualcomm patents
Qualcomm previously won an iPhone ban in the country.
Photo: Qualcomm

The recent court-appointed sales ban on certain iPhone models in Germany could be at risk. That’s thanks to a decision by a German court on Tuesday, who ruled against Qualcomm in its patent case against Apple.

The regional court in the city of Mannheim threw out the Qualcomm suit, claiming that the patent was not being violated due to Apple’s use of Qualcomm chips in its older iPhones. Qualcomm has said it plans to appeal.

“Apple has a history of infringing our patents,” said Don Rosenberg, Qualcomm’s executive vice president and general counsel, in a statement. “While we disagree with the Mannheim court’s decision and will appeal, we will continue to enforce our [intellectual property] rights against Apple worldwide.”

Apple vs. Qualcomm

Qualcomm recently posted a bond of 1.34 billion euros ($1.5 billion) to enforce a previous German court order halting several iPhone models from selling in the country. Despite this, the iPhone 7 and 8-era devices remain on sale with carriers and resellers. Apple, however, made the decision to pull the devices from its Apple Stores in Germany.

The case in Germany is similar to another sales for certain iPhone models in China. By trying to block the sales of certain iPhone models, Qualcomm was costing Apple millions of dollars a day.

The two companies have been battling one another since early 2017. They are scheduled to meet in court in the U.S. in April. The two big issues in the case are Apple’s decision to withhold $7 billion in royalties it supposedly owes Qualcomm. Qualcomm has also claimed that Apple has stolen its proprietary trade secrets and passed them on to Intel.

Earlier this week, Apple revealed that it wanted to use Qualcomm’s LTE modems in the iPhone XS and iPhone XR this year. However, Qualcomm allegedly refused to sell Apple the chips as a result of their legal dispute.

Source: Reuters

 

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