Apple isn’t backing down from its stand against Qualcomm, and today the company filed a pair of new lawsuits in Beijing against its new legal adversary. The actions come in the immediate wake of Apple’s first volley against Qualcomm, which happened last week with a $1 billion suit over patent royalties and fees.
Apple’s new lawsuits follow a similar narrative to the first, with the company claiming that Qualcomm exploited its position in the mobile chip market to strong-arm Apple into bad deals. In one suit, Apple also alleges that Qualcomm failed to provide reasonable terms for licensing its most crucial standard patents. Apple is requesting one billion yuan in compensation, which echoes its $1 billion request here in the US, but when converted the new lawsuit demands are actually significantly less at somewhere around $145 million.
According to Reuters, Qualcomm isn’t planning on taking the lawsuits lying down. Qualcomm VP Don Rosenberg reportedly promised that his company would fight back against Apple’s claims in the Chinese court system. “These filings by Apple’s Chinese subsidiary are just part of Apple’s efforts to find ways to pay less for Qualcomm’s technology,” Rosenberg alleged in a written statement. “Apple was offered terms consistent with terms accepted by more than one hundred other Chinese companies and refused to even consider them.”
It’s worth noting that Qualcomm provides several other major electronics manufacturers with its wireless chips, including Samsung. If Apple does indeed get a favorable ruling in either the United States or China, it’s certainly possible that Qualcomm’s other clients might see that as an open door to challenge the company on various other licensing agreements.
