Qualcomm is revving up its legal battle with Apple. In a new court filing in Munich, Qualcomm demanded “significant fines” be put on the iPhone-maker for not complying with a previous court order.
Apple was barred from selling some iPhones in Germany at the end of 2018. The company pulled the iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 at its retail stores, but Qualcomm is crying foul that other third-party shops still had units in stock.
The two companies have been engaged in a huge legal battle the past two years over patent infringements and licensing fees. Apple stopped paying to license Qualcomm’s technology, claiming the chipmaker was charging exorbitant fees.
To avoid a sales ban in China, Apple had to come out with a special iOS update navigating around Qualcomm’s tech. The same tactic didn’t help Apple in Germany.
Qualcomm wants Apple to pay
Qualcomm filed a motion on Wednesday for the court to enforce its injunction on certain iPhones. Because units were still available at other retailers, Qualcomm says Apple didn’t properly recall all devices.
Those iPhone units at other stores “intentionally defy the court order. They obviously don’t consider themselves bound by the injunction,” Qualcomm’s lawyers wrote in the filings, as reported by Bloomberg. “Significant fines must be imposed to put a check on that.”
Meanwhile, another regional German court dismissed four of Qualcomm’s patent lawsuits against Apple. The court ruled that the iPhone search capabilities don’t infringe on Qualcomm’s patents. Those rulings don’t affect the current sales ban though because it’s based on hardware patents. There are four other search-related patent cases still to be decided on too.
