Apple is engaged in a brand new patent-based legal battle with Qualcomm, the biggest chipmaker for mobile devices, over royalties for the iPhone’s wireless chips that and related business practices. But it turns out there’s one other critical iPhone processor that may spark a new wave of legal confrontations, the graphics processing unit.
A few weeks ago, news broke out that Apple will stop using Imagination Technologies GPU at some point in the following two years. It was the British company that delivered the update, with the announcement sending its stock into a nosedive.
Imagination’s share lost 70% of their value that day, which is hardly surprising given that Apple’s iPhone is responsible for about half of Imagination’s revenue.
At the time, Imagination warned that it doesn’t believe that Apple can design its own GPU chips without violating Imagination patents, suggesting that it might pursue legal action against Apple.
Now, a new Reuters report reveals that Imagination has started a “dispute resolution procedure” with Apple, over licensing matters.
The British chipmaker said on Thursday that it failed to make satisfactory progress with Apple on an alternative agreement. “Imagination has, therefore, commenced the dispute resolution procedure under the license agreement with a view to reaching an agreement through a more structured process,” the company said.
