Despite Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf saying that he’d be open to settling his company’s ongoing legal dispute with Apple, there’s no indication that the two tech giants will reach a settlement deal anytime soon. If anything, the legal friction between the two companies appears to be
intensifying, with Qualcomm this week accusing Apple of stealing proprietary information about its LTE modems and handing them over to rival Intel.
With Apple and Qualcomm still duking it out over iPhone royalty payments and a handful of patent infringement claims, Apple today received a favorable ruling from the International Trade Commission (ITC) regarding Qualcomm’s effort to block the import of iPhones into the United States. According to Bloomberg, Judge Thomas Pender issued a recommendation to block Qualcomm’s request, though the recommendation is still subject to a full ITC review. Incidentally, Pender did findthat the iPhone does infringe upon one of Qualcomm’s patents.
The recommendation of no import ban is a boon for Apple, which had argued it wouldn’t be in the public’s interest to have phones with Intel chips kept from the U.S. market. While the judge’s full findings won’t be public until both sides get a chance to redact confidential information, America’s role in developing the next generation of mobile communications was a key issue in the case.
“We’re glad the ITC stopped Qualcomm’s attempt to damage competition and ultimately harm innovators and U.S. consumers,” Apple said in a statement on the matter provided to Reuters.
Despite Mollenkopf’s aforementioned statement regarding a settlement and despite Tim Cook’s aversion to litigation, it appears that Apple and Qualcomm’s dispute shows no signs of slowing down. Incidentally, the legal dispute between the two companies prompted Apple to rely exclusively on Intel’s chips for its 2018 iPhone lineup.
