Qualcomm beats Apple in court, appeal incoming

Dec 20, 2018 17:05 GMT  ·  By

Apple lost a major battle in Germany as a court in Frankfurt ruled that basically all iPhones starting with the 7th generation are infringing upon a Qualcomm patent. A sales ban will come into effect if Apple doesn’t dispute the ruling.

Apple and Qualcomm have been disputing patents and trademarks for a long time. Unless you’re really connected to this world, it’s getting challenging to keep tabs on everything that’s been happening, on who’s winning and who’s losing.

For example, just six months ago, Apple was trying to invalidate some Qualcomm patents in the United States, and a year before Apple lost a trial in China. Clearly, it's an ongoing battle, and it doesn’t seem to be an end in sight. In retrospective, it’s very likely that many more patents are being infringed, by both parties.

Apple is definitely not happy

The stuff that’s being debated in courts these days is as dry as a desert. Long gone are the days when companies were trying to own copy/paste or the notion of a mouse cursor. Now, it’s down to a hardware feature that preserves the quality wireless signals and battery power.

According to Reuters, “Qualcomm is seeking a ban on some iPhones with chips from Intel Corp. The judge ruled that phones that contain a combination of chips from Intel and Apple supplier Qorvo Inc violated one of Qualcomm’s patents around so-called envelope tracking, a feature that helps mobile phones save battery power while sending and receiving wireless signals.”

It's not the kind of thing that springs into mind when you’re thinking of patent battles. Technically, it’s Intel that’s infringing on the patent, but Apple is the one using them. In any case, all of the latest models are equipped with this hardware, and it goes back to iPhone 7.

The ruling states that Apple should stop selling all devices which contain this specific modem, in Germany, but that decision will be suspended when the appeal goes through. Apple was also pretty caustic regarding this latest ruling.

“Qualcomm's campaign is a desperate attempt to distract from the real issues between our companies. Their tactics, in the courts and in their everyday business, are harming innovation and harming consumers. Qualcomm insists on charging exorbitant fees based on work they didn't do, and they are being investigated by governments all around the world for their behavior. We are of course disappointed by this verdict, and we plan to appeal,” said Apple in a statement for CNBC.

For now, Qualcomm has yet to issue a statement, and it’s unlikely to do so at this stage of the trial.

As it stands right now, iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR are still being sold in stores across Germany, and that’s not going to change until the end of the trial.