Lawsuits between the two tech giants has been going on for quite some time, but the recent case in Mannheim, Germany is a victory for Apple against Qualcomm.
The companies have been suing each other for several issues; Apple sued Qualcomm for unfair business practices while Qualcomm sued Apple for patent infringement. While Qualcomm previously won for the cases in China and Munich, Germany, Qualcomm became the losing end in the Mannheim case.
The court sided Apple this time, stating that Qualcomm’s accusation is groundless and Apple was not found guilty of any patent infringement. That being said, Qualcomm is definitely appealing to the higher court, though the company is also facing another lawsuit against US FTC in court for monopolistic business practices.
The US FTC is also backed by Intel and Apple, accusing Qualcomm of excessively charging its customers like Apple to pay for the wireless chips technology. It is believed that Qualcomm’s decision to overcharge is to maintain its powerful status and monopolise the market.
Circling back to the current issue, it is a relief for Apple that the company won the case because the company may have the legal leverage to lift off the iPhone ban imposed in Munich.
Unfortunately, Apple is still unable to do anything about the older iPhone models that are banned in China.
