It is pretty common for top manufacturers to face court litigations for their top products. It was only a matter of time before the iPhone 12 series faces its own court issues. This series has been largely successful and analysts believe that Apple may break a sales record this year. The predictions so far are that iPhone sale this year will hit 240-250 million units. This will be more than the 231 million unit record created with the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in 2015.
Today, there are reports that Apple and Qualcomm have to respond to a court summon. According to the case, the specific 5G technology used by the two companies was accused of infringing a radio frequency calibration patent.
Patent licensing company, Red Rock, filed a lawsuit with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas on Thursday. The company holds wireless transceiver calibration patent No. 7,346,313. The focus, in this case, is a small number of Qualcomm 5G wireless transceivers. Because iPhone 12 and Pro use Qualcomm 5G baseband, they also integrate these allegedly infringing transceiver technologies, resulting in Apple being listed as a defendant.
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The lawsuit lists Qualcomm’s SMR526, SDR865, and SDX55M transceivers as infringing products. The plaintiff requested the court to hold a jury trial and listed a long list of legal remedies. These include the prevention of Apple and Qualcomm from infringing on the “313” patent, compensation, and payment of patent fees.
Patent infringement cases are very common with big companies
Some of these patents issues are from companies hoping to milk bigger companies of some cash. In fact, many companies just hold patent and quietly wait for bigger companies to infringe on these patents. This is exactly how some companies manage to stay afloat for many years without any significant innovation or sales.
However, iPhone 12 users have absolutely nothing to fear. Worse case scenario, Apple and Qualcomm will have to pay patent infringement fees and a couple of other fees.
Back to the iPhone 12 performance, this series have a good chance of becoming Apple’s best selling iPhone. Presently, the company is attracting more sales in China with its discounts. The latest of these price cuts is a $90+ discount. This discount makes the iPhone 12 cheaper in China than it is in the U.S. This discount is currently active on JD.com for the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini.
