Qualcomm calls for ban on iPhone imports to the US from China
Qualcomm has registered a complaint with the International Trade Commission and the Federal Court in the US that iPhones manufactured in China must not be imported to the US as they could be infringing the patents of Qualcomm. It is claiming that Apple is using its technology unfairly. Apple and Qualcomm are currently in legal wrangling over royalty amounts and claimed patent infringements, with Apple refusing to pay royalties of $1bn to Qualcomm until the dispute is resolved.
Around two months, when Apple had said that it won’t be paying royalties of $1 billion to Qualcomm until the issue between them is resolved, Qualcomm demanded the ban on manufacturing of iPhones in the U.S. and Asia. Today, Qualcomm has officially registered a complaint with the International Trade Commission (ITC) and Federal Court in the U.S. to import the ban of some iPhones claiming that Apple is unfairly using its technology.

According to the complaint filed by Qualcomm with ITC, iPhones that are manufactured in China should not be imported to the U.S. if they are infringing the patents of Qualcomm. The case filed with US District Court for Southern California seeks damages for patent infringement.

The U.S. based chip maker has accused of Apple of infringing six of its technological patents that belong to some of the important features of iPhones. Qualcomm claims that Apple is continuously using these patents without paying for them. As of this writing, there is no information on which iPhones are infringing Qualcomm’s patents. Hence, the chipset making company is gunning to various operations of Apple such as selling, advertising, importing, warehousing of the iPhone.

The six patents that Apple is said to be violating are related to optimized performance of battery, prolonging battery life while sending live video by creating data super-highway, network management and system performance. All the six patents were issued in the last four years. The images in this post are from Qualcomm which gives a breakdown of all the six patents along with details on each one of them that are being violated by Apple iPhones.

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In April, Apple had filed a legal complaint against Qualcomm for unfairly charging patent licensing fees. The complaint stated that the U.S. chip maker is asking the Cupertino company to pay five times more money than it is collectively paying to cellular patent licensors. Apple has also said that the illegal business practices of Qualcomm are not negatively impacting it but also the entire industry. According to Apple, Qualcomm is only supplying it with a single connectivity component that does not belong to any of the innovations of Apple that it uses on its iPhones and still it is demanding a percentage of the collective cost of its products. At the same time, Qualcomm has also said that Apple is spreading false and misleading information to antitrust agencies in a bid to decrease the royalty amount that it is to pay to Qualcomm.

(source|via)