The ongoing legal battle between Apple and Qualcomm over iPhone royalty payments is getting more outlandish by the week. Earlier this week, word surfaced that Apple may tap Intel to be its sole supplier of LTE chips on upcoming iPhones and iPads. According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, the motivation behind the move stems from Qualcomm’s decision to withhold from Apple critical software required to test LTE chips on next-gen iOS devices.
Qualcomm, it’s worth noting, has vehemently denied that its withholding critical software from Apple. In fact, a Qualcomm spokesperson told the Journal that its “modem that could be used in the next generation iPhone has already been fully tested and released to Apple.”
And now comes a new bombshell report from Bloomberg which relays that Qualcomm recently filed yet another suit against Apple, this time alleging that the Cupertino-based company has illegally shared proprietary technical information with Intel.
“Qualcomm Inc. has sued Apple Inc.,” the report notes, “accusing the iPhone maker of failing to abide by the terms of a software license and said it may have used its unprecedented access to that code to help Qualcomm-rival Intel Corp.”
The new suit adds yet another layer of complexity to an already complicated case that has seen any number of suits and countersuits filed. And while large disputes like this typically settle, it doesn’t seem that Apple or Qualcomm are interested in budging even an inch. Indeed, Qualcomm not too long ago even filed a suit seeking to prevent Apple from manufacturing iPhones in China altogether.
As the legal battle between the companies rages on, Qualcomm is seeing an impact on its bottom line. The company posted its earnings results yesterday and disclosed that licensing revenue dropped by 36%.
