Thank you Bhavini Mitry for her contribution with this article.
Apple and Qualcomm find themselves in a head-to- head war filing and extending lawsuits against each other over royalties for patent licenses used to produce iPhones. Royalties are legally binding payments to a company for the use of property such as patents. Think of them as rent you pay for the right to use another’s person’s property. Apple is challenging Qualcomm’s royalty license schemes by claiming they amount to “illegal business practices” where they charge for both the patent license and chip used in iPhones for users to connect to their cellular data service. Apple states that they should only be charged with one or the other, not both and accuses Qualcomm of extortion.
This is an issue since Qualcomm gets a part of the share for every iPhone that is produced by supplying those chips. Furthermore, Qualcomm claims that Apple is required to pay “a percentage of the iPhone’s revenue in return for the use of Qualcomm patents”. Apple is suing the company in
three lawsuits in different countries: United States for $1 billion, China for $145 million, and the United Kingdom also for $145 million. Qualcomm, on the other hand, is seeking for an import ban on iPhones to the United States. Import bans is one of the rights the owner of a patent can exercise against another party that is infringing in the inventor’s patents.
During this lawsuit, both parties have suspended royalty payments until the legal battle is resolved and they settle on an “agreed-upon rate”.
Apple and Qualcomm find themselves in a head-to- head war filing and extending lawsuits against each other over royalties for patent licenses used to produce iPhones. Royalties are legally binding payments to a company for the use of property such as patents. Think of them as rent you pay for the right to use another’s person’s property. Apple is challenging Qualcomm’s royalty license schemes by claiming they amount to “illegal business practices” where they charge for both the patent license and chip used in iPhones for users to connect to their cellular data service. Apple states that they should only be charged with one or the other, not both and accuses Qualcomm of extortion.
This is an issue since Qualcomm gets a part of the share for every iPhone that is produced by supplying those chips. Furthermore, Qualcomm claims that Apple is required to pay “a percentage of the iPhone’s revenue in return for the use of Qualcomm patents”. Apple is suing the company in
three lawsuits in different countries: United States for $1 billion, China for $145 million, and the United Kingdom also for $145 million. Qualcomm, on the other hand, is seeking for an import ban on iPhones to the United States. Import bans is one of the rights the owner of a patent can exercise against another party that is infringing in the inventor’s patents.
During this lawsuit, both parties have suspended royalty payments until the legal battle is resolved and they settle on an “agreed-upon rate”.