A couple of days ago, Qualcomm announced that the Fuzhou Intermediate People’s court had issued a court order prohibiting the sale of some iPhones including the iPhone X in China because Apple infringed on two of Qualcomm’s patents. Apple immediately responded by upgrading the iOS system to resolve the infringement problem. Subsequently, there were reports that the iPhones produced by Heshuo are not applicable to the ban, while the iPhones produced by Foxconn and Wistron are within the scope of the ban. It is reported that Heshuo had an exemption because the company paid a patent fee for the software and neither Foxconn nor Wistron paid the patent fee.
Gizchina News of the week
Now, according to the latest development, Apple’s four suppliers, Foxconn, Heshuo, Wistron, and Compal’s lawyers, said that the sales ban imposed by the court against Apple did not affect the normal production of the four suppliers. They claim that Qualcomm is diverting everyone’s attention from the next few lawsuits. It is understood that Apple previously paid franchise fees to Qualcomm through its own suppliers. Since the launch of Apple and Qualcomm intellectual property litigation, Apple suppliers have stopped paying franchise fees to Qualcomm. In further response to Apple’s sales ban in China, the four supplier lawyers said that as long as the software update can solve the problem, Qualcomm’s move is exaggerated, and the patent is a secondary patent.
In July 2017, Apple’s four suppliers chose to sue Qualcomm, accusing Qualcomm of violating the antitrust law, requesting the court to stop Qualcomm from charging massive royalties.
