Qualcomm Strikes Back At Apple’s Allegations

Apple’s $1bn lawsuit against Qualcomm wasn’t going to be left unanswered. Sure enough, days after Apple’s allegations of wrongful license charging, Qualcomm responded with complaints of their own.

At the end of last week, Apple made matters worse for the company already accused by the FTC of anti-competitive policy. The iPhone maker sued Qualcomm for charging royalties for “patents like TouchID, displays and cameras it has nothing to do with“. Moreover, Apple claimed Qualcomm had charged them “at least five times more in payments than all the other cellular patent licensors we have agreements with combined”.

Now, the company is trying to save face and get rid of the greedy, imoral image Apple has painted of them by saying that the lawsuit is “baseless“. In fact, the Cupertino company is the one that has “intentionally mischaracterised our agreements and negotiations, as well as the enormity and value of the technology we have invented, contributed and shared with all mobile device makers through our licensing programme”, Qualcomm claims.

The chip manufacturer is also accusing Apple of “actively encouraging regulatory attacks on Qualcomm’s business in various jurisdictions around the world, as reflected in the recent KFTC decision and FTC complaint, by misrepresenting facts and withholding information.”

Words may sting, but facts are what matter in the end. We’ll just have to wait and see how this unfolds.

You should know: After a rocky year with China, Qualcomm was fined with $854 Million by the Korea Fair Trade Comission in December for “unfair business practices in patent licensing and modem chip sales.”. Qualcomm didn’t take it lightly, as you can imagine, and is set to appeal in court.