Qualcomm’s legal fight with Apple has been going on for a long time now. Qualcomm has, so far, filed 4 different lawsuits against Apple. In the latest lawsuit, Qualcomm has urged the US government to ban new iPhone devices from coming into the country. Plus, they have also asked to halt the sales of the phones already present in the US.
According to Qualcomm, Apple is violating six patents that helps in extending the battery life of the phones.
The six patents or, as Qualcomm put them, inventions, that Apple’s devices are currently using are listed below:
- US Patent No. 8,698,558: Extends battery life by building intelligence into the system so the antenna is always using just the right amount of battery power to transmit, whether it be video, text, or voice. (Issued 2014)
- US Patent No. 8,633,936: Enables high performance and rich visual graphics for games while increasing a mobile device’s battery life. (Issued 2014)
- US Patent No. 9,608,675: Enables a mobile device to send high-speed data such as live video from your phone by combining many lanes of traffic into a data super-highway while prolonging battery life. (Issued 2017)
- US Patent No. 8,838,949: Enables “flashless boot” which allows your smartphone to connect to the internet quickly after being powered on, while extending battery life and reducing memory size. (Issued 2014)
- US Patent No. 9,535,490: Enables the applications on your smartphone to get their data to and from the internet quickly and efficiently by acting as a smart “traffic cop” between the apps processor and the modem. (Issued 2017)
- US Patent No. 8,487,658: Maximizes smartphone performance while extending battery life by connecting high voltage circuits and low voltage circuits with efficient interfaces. (Issued 2013)
Qualcomm states that important technologies are not required for any industry standard. Plus all the 6 patents were issued in the last 4 years and that Apple is using these technologies in their devices and is not paying for them.
These lawsuits can be seen as a counter measure to the lawsuit that Apple filed against Qualcomm this year regarding the anti-competitive practices relating to the sales of its smartphone modems. Apple claimed that Qualcomm is abusing its position as the market leader and that there was “mounting evidence” that it was charging excessively high fees for the use of its patents. Additionally, Apple also alleged that at least some of the patents Qualcomm wants to be paid for are invalid, and that they have not fulfilled its obligation to charge “fair and reasonable” rates as the patents are ”standard essential”.
It would be interesting to see how Apple reacts to this latest lawsuit and where these two giants of the mobile and communication industry go from here. With Qualcomm being the leading supplier of LTE Modems for smartphones, it would be smart on Apple’s part to reach a settlement with them.