An ongoing litigation between two American companies, Qualcomm and Apple, has the tech world at the edge of its seat. Qualcomm sued the Cupertino-based company and alleged Apple violated a software license contract to benefit rival chipmaker Intel Corp for making broadband modems.
According to a Reuters report , “Qualcomm said in a lawsuit filed in California state court in San Diego on Wednesday that Apple used its commercial leverage to demand unprecedented access to the chipmaker’s highly confidential software, including the source code.”
Apple has yet to release a comment. The above report also confirmed that the tech giant started using Intel’s broadband modem chips on the iPhone 7.
The lawsuit filed by Qualcomm claimed that Apple was required under their contractual agreement not to share or communicate specific details about the Qualcomm chips. In addition, Apple was not allowed to disclose the specific details about Qualcomm chips to Apple engineers who are working on competing chips from Intel.
The move by Qualcomm might be connected to Apple integrating the Intel chips and phasing out Qualcomm’s technology. According to a 9 to 5 Mac news article , “Earlier this week, it was reported that Apple may be planning to move entirely away from Qualcomm in the future with the iPhone and iPads, and yesterday Qualcomm reported a 90 percent drop in profits following the battle with Apple and held royalties.”
The 9 to 5 Mac report added that this battle between the two companies dates back to January when the FTC filed a complaint that alleged Qualcomm forced Apple to use its baseband chips for higher patent royalties. Consequently, Tim Cook’s company proceeded with a $1 billion lawsuit against Qualcomm just three days after.
This hate-love affair includes another separate litigation case. Qualcomm sought to ban iPhones in China and asserted that Apple had stolen their patents. It requested U.S. trade regulators and the Chinese government to prevent further sales in light of the claim.
In spite of these recent allegations by Qualcomm, Apple is enjoying a successful week. A CNBC analysis confirmed Apple earnings exceeded Wall Street expectations and surprisingly its iPhone 8 sales were better than initially reported.
[Featured Image by Martin MEissner/AP Images]