Apple says a Chinese iPhone ban would force a settlement with Qualcomm

“Apple Inc. says a Chinese ban on sales of the iPhone will force it to settle a long and bitter licensing battle with Qualcomm Inc., an outcome that may end up harming the country’s smartphone industry and give its fiercest legal rival a boost,” Mark Gurman and Ian King report for Bloomberg. “The U.S. company was responding to a Chinese court that ruled this week Apple infringed two Qualcomm patents and issued injunctions against the sale of six older versions of the iPhone.”
“On Friday, Apple said it will push out a software update for its Chinese users early next week, to address functions covered by the patents in question,” Gurman and King report. “‘Apple will be forced to settle with the Respondent, causing all mobile phone manufacturers to relapse into the previous unreasonable charging mode and pay high licensing fees, resulting in unrecoverable losses in the downstream market of mobile phones,’ the iPhone maker said in the Dec. 10 filing to the court.”
“The two U.S. companies are locked in a worldwide dispute over licensing fees that Qualcomm charges for use of technology that the chipmaker says underpins all modern phone systems. Apple has argued its former supplier unfairly leverages its position as the biggest supplier of chips for smartphones to force payment,” Gurman and King report. “Like Apple, Chinese smartphone makers had argued for years that Qualcomm — which owns a swathe of patents essential to modern wireless communications — is abusing its position and levying punitive fees… iPhones remain on store shelves pending a decision on Apple’s appeal.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Let’s first see if the Chinese court accepts Apple’s software update fix as they consider the loss of jobs, profits, and taxes that would result in China from any iPhone ban.
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