Things aren't looking good for Qualcomm from a legal standpoint, as the company was first sued by the Federal Trade Commission for unfair trade practices, and later by Apple for abusing patents and charging royalties for unrelated technologies. Apple is now taking a things a bit further by filing a couple of lawsuits against the chipmaker in China.
Apple is certainly miffed by Qualcomm's dominant position in the mobile chipset markets and has filed a billion yuan ($145.32 million) lawsuit with the Intellectual Property Court in Beijing for abusing its influence in China. The company did not stop with just this one lawsuit, as it also sued the American chipmaker for not fulfilling the requirements of "standard essential patents".
Qualcomm has responded to Apple's claims, saying that "These filings by Apple’s Chinese subsidiary are just part of Apple’s efforts to find ways to pay less for Qualcomm's technology. Apple was offered terms consistent with terms accepted by more than one hundred other Chinese companies and refused to even consider them".
It isn't the first time that Qualcomm has landed in legal trouble in China, as the company was fined nearly a billion dollars in the country for anti-competitive practices. Given its track record, Qualcomm might be looking at something similar if it hasn't cleaned up its act and is found guilty.
Source: Reuters
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