14 DAY TRIAL // It looks like the partnership between Apple and Qualcomm has come to an end, as the Cupertino company has decided to turn to the courts to settle a disagreement on paid royalties.
Apple has already released an official statement explaining why it has decided to file a lawsuit against Qualcomm over excessive royalties. The amount Apple is asking Qualcomm to pay for charging more excessive royalties is no less than $1 billion.
“For many years Qualcomm has unfairly insisted on charging royalties for technologies they have nothing to do with. The more Apple innovates with unique features such as TouchID, advanced displays, and cameras, to name just a few, the more money Qualcomm collects for no reason and the more expensive it becomes for Apple to fund these innovations,” reads Apple's statement obtained by CBNC.
But that's not all, as Apple went on to say that it was charged by Qualcomm up to five times more in payments than any other patent licensors it has agreements with combined. That must have hurt really bad, so we can understand why Apple has decided to take it to the courts.
“Despite being just one of over a dozen companies who contributed to basic cellular standards, Qualcomm insists on charging Apple at least five times more in payments than all the other cellular patent licensors we have agreements with combined.”
On top of that, according to the statement, Qualcomm withheld around the same amount of $1 billion in payments from Apple because the Cupertino-based company helped the South Korean authorities investigating the chip maker's business.
“To protect this business scheme Qualcomm has taken increasingly radical steps, most recently withholding nearly $1B in payments from Apple as retaliation for responding truthfully to law enforcement agencies investigating them.”
Qualcomm hasn't yet responded to Apple's lawsuit and allegations, so it will be interesting to see how this clash between two giants will end up.