Not long ago, the legal dispute between Apple and Qualcomm seemed to be settled out of court. Qualcomm had been using the more modest wording, and when the company asked the court to give more time to reach a settlement, Apple also supported the motion. However, when Qualcomm accused Apple of stealing its source code and complaining that Apple’s arrears of patent fees are increasing, things have changed. Although Apple later paid Qualcomm a patent fee of $500 million, a new report pointed out that Apple did not plan to reconcile with Qualcomm.
Reuters said in a report that according to an insider source, Apple did not negotiate the legal dispute with Qualcomm at any level. The insider said: “We have absolutely no meaningful discussions with Qualcomm and no agreement has been reached. We are preparing for the trial.”
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Apple sued Qualcomm in January 2017 and demanded compensation of $1 billion. It accused Qualcomm of charging unfair patent royalties for “technology that has nothing to do with them.” At the time, Apple and its suppliers had stopped paying license fees.
Although Apple insists that Qualcomm charges unfair royalties, Qualcomm claims that its technology is “the core of every iPhone.” Qualcomm quickly filed a countersuit, claiming that Apple infringed on many of its patents. Since then, both companies have filed several lawsuits against each other, and Qualcomm has also sought to ban the import and export of some iPhones in the United States and China.
