Qualcomm seems to have no intentions to stop its fight against Apple as the chipset maker has yet again filed legal lawsuits in China seeking to ban of sale and Manufacturing of iPhones in the country. The San Diego based company is aiming to take a dig at Apple in the world’s largest market for smartphones where most of the iPhones are being manufactured.
Qualcomm filed the suits in a Beijing intellectual property court claiming patent infringement saying that Apple has employed the technologies invented by Qualcomm without paying the royalty fees. The lawsuits are based on three non-standard essential patents which cover power management, a touchscreen technology called Force Touch that Apple is currently using on its iPhones said Qualcomm. Furthermore, it says that Apple by using these patented technologies are bettering their products thus gaining more profits.
In contrast, a spokesperson from Apple; Josh Rosenstock states that “over the years of negotiations with Qualcomm, these patents have never been discussed and similar to their courtroom move, this latest legal effort will also fail.”
Qualcomm filed the lawsuits in Beijing court on September 29th, but the court is yet to make them official. Mike Walkley, an analyst at Canaccord Genuity Inc, says that “it looks like an attempt to bring Apple back to negotiations and there is little or no importance for a Chinese court taking any such actions as requested by Qualcomm.” More than anything, the Beijing court will also consider the fact that if the iPhone manufacturing in China is halted, it will cause lay off for Chinese employees.
Walkley further opines that if indeed Apple iPhone manufacturing and sale is stopped in China, it would give an advantage to Chinese brands such as Guangdong Oppo Electronics Co. to gain market share against Apple. Investors, on the other hand, aren’t concerned about the latest lawsuit as they firmly believe that Apple would come to compromise siting the more significant threat to their brand value.
Both these companies go back in months with this legal dispute, but the latest lawsuit on Apple comes at a crucial phase as the company just launched the iPhone 8 and X model with an aim to claim back the throne in China which off lately has been dominated by many Chinese brands. So, any disruption at this moment would cost Apple a fortune as just the greater China region accounts for a 22.5% ($215.6 billion sales) share in the recent financial year.
Sai Krishna contributed to this post