Qualcomm counters Apple’s $1bn lawsuit, denies anti-competitive claims

Back in January, Qualcomm was blindsided by not one but two massive lawsuits involving Apple. One from the US Federal Trade Commission and another from Apple itself. Qualcomm already responded to the FTC's lawsuit last week and now this week, the chip maker is hitting back at Apple's case, claiming that Apple has been undermining Qualcomm's business and misrepresenting the performance of its chips.

In its counterclaim against Apple, Qualcomm accused Apple of encouraging international regulators to file their own lawsuits against the company. Qualcomm also claims that its patents were essential to the iPhone's success, also stating that its license rates were fair. Qualcomm's patent licensing business has come under fire recently, with antitrust investigations launching in South Korea and the USA.

In its legal complaint, Apple claims Qualcomm abused its position to overcharge Apple royalties, something that Qualcomm has outright denied in its counterclaim. According to Qualcomm, the company went out of its way to offer Apple alternatives in its licensing negotiations, which were all rejected.

Aside from that, the final interesting piece of information to come out of Qualcomm's countersuit is the claim that Apple falsely claims that there was “no discernable difference” between LTE chips provided by Qualcomm and those provided by Intel. Apple had used both companies as suppliers of LTE modems for the iPhone 7 but allegedly limited performance of the Qualcomm chip for the sake of parity.

Apple has not commented on Qualcomm's recent claims yet.

KitGuru Says: It seems that things are getting ugly between Apple and Qualcomm, though this will just be the beginning. Much like the Apple V Samsung lawsuit, this one may drag out over the course of several years.

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