Apple begins appealing against Qualcomm’s China iPhone injunction

The Qualcomm-Apple legal battle took an interesting turn yesterday as Qualcomm was granted a preliminary injunction to prevent Apple from selling some of its older iPhones in China. This includes popular models like the iPhone 6s, iPhone 7, iPhone 8 and iPhone X, all of which relied on Qualcomm modems for connectivity. However, as usual, Apple's legal team is already prepared to fight the decision, with an appeal already in the works.

Aside from the licensing dispute pertaining to modems and connectivity, Qualcomm also claimed that Apple is infringing on two other patents, both of which relate to photo editing features. These disputes are what helped Qualcomm gain the injunction in China. A similar injunction request was filed in the US some time ago, although in that instance, nothing came to fruition.

According to a report from CNBC, Apple has already filed an appeal for the Chinese injunction. This is just another dispute to add to the stack, as Qualcomm and Apple continue to battle it out over licensing agreements and patents.

This whole situation kicked off last year, after Apple launched a $1 billion lawsuit against Qualcomm over what was deemed to be an unfair licensing contract. The FTC also began investigating Qualcomm for anti-competitive business practises at around the same time. Apple has since switched to Intel for its iPhone modem needs, but Qualcomm has countered that by claiming that Apple gave Intel access to confidential information. 

Most recently, Qualcomm seemed to be under the impression that this whole legal dispute would be settled soon. Apple has not commented on the matter at all.

KitGuru Says: The Qualcomm-Apple dispute has had so many twists and turns over the last year that it can be hard to keep track. Perhaps this will blow over soon, although Apple did continue to fight Samsung for years over rounded corners of all things, so who knows, we could still be hearing about this in five years time. 

Become a Patron!