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Apple and Qualcomm once again embroiled in legal battle

Reuters reported yesterday that Apple had filed a countersuit against Qualcomm in which it claims that the company’s Snapdragon chips (used in countless Android devices) represent an infringement on its own patents.

This comes after Qualcomm pursued a ban on the import of the iPad and iPhone into the US earlier this year. At the time, the tech firm said Apple infringed on no fewer than six of its patents related to carrier technologies and aggregation. These were created to enable iPhones to preserve battery life during the communication process.

Apple denied the allegations.

The Cupertino company’s new counter lawsuit leads the claim that it is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips that infringe on patents. According to the legal documents, Qualcomm infringes on β€œat least” eight battery life patents held by Apple. These are related to ensuring that every part of the device’s processor uses no more power than is absolutely necessary for its performance, making sure that wake-sleep functions provide an optimised user experience, and that certain processor parts are powered down when not in use.



The documents specifically refer to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 and 800 processors used in Google and Samsung smartphones.

In the complaint, the firm claims that: β€œApple began seeking those patents years before Qualcomm began seeking the patents it asserts against Apple in this case”.

This has been a hectic year in the ongoing rivalry of Apple versus Qualcomm, predominantly played out in court battles. In January, the Federal Trade Commission said Qualcomm was involved in anti-competitive patent licensing activities. Not long after, Apple sued the company for one billion dollars because it was forced to pay β€œunfair” royalties for β€œtechnologies they have nothing to do with”.

Qualcomm countersued Apple in April and things have gone from bad to worse ever since.

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About the author

Chris

I've been a passionate evangelist for Apple and the Macintosh throughout my working life, my first love was a Quadra 605 working with a small creative agency in the south of Norfolk UK in the mid 1990's, I later progressed to other roles in other Macintosh dominated industries, first as a Senior graphic designer at a small printing company and then a production manager at Guardian Media Group. As the publishing and printing sector wained I moved into Internet Marketing and in 2006 co-founded blurtit.com which grew to become one the top 200 visited sites in the US (according to Quantcast), at its peak receiving over 15 million visits per month. For the last ten years I have worked as an Affiliate and Consultant to many different business and start ups, my key skill set being online marketing, on page monetisation, landing page optimisation and traffic generation, if you would like to hire me or discuss your current project please reach out to me here.

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