Apple filed a lawsuit against Qualcomm in China with a similar complaint filed in the U.S. about the proprietary technology owned by Qualcomm. However, Qualcomm fired back at Apple, questioning its original motive in the lawsuit.
Apple filed a lawsuit in Intellectual Property Court in Beijing on Monday, Jan. 23 as reported by Wall Street Journal. The company accused Qualcomm of violating the antimonopoly law in China by implementing a current licensing to its proprietary technology. Apple sought a $145 million or 1 billion yuan compensation for damage caused by the licensing practices which according to Apple are unfair and unreasonable.
Few days before, Apple filed a similar lawsuit in the U.S. seeking for $1 billion in rebate payment from Qualcomm in the Federal District Court in the Southern of California. Apple argued that Qualcomm took advantage of its position as baseband chips manufacturer to seek unreasonable and expensive terms for a patent agreement. The leverage position made Qualcomm monopolize the baseband chips market which is a critical component for a smartphone.
As a result of the licensing practices, Apple is unable to select another chipset suppliers other than Qualcomm. The lawsuit was filed on Friday, Jan. 20.
Prior to the lawsuit, Qualcomm was also facing the lawsuit from U.S. Federal Trade Commission. The government anti-monopoly agency alleged Qualcomm to conduct unlawful practice to maintain its monopoly as producer and manufacturer of smartphone chipsets.
Qualcomm fired back at the accusation from both Apple and the Federal Trade Commission. The company CEO Steve Mollenkopf said the lawsuit from Apple aimed at nothing more than just asking for the lower bargaining price. He said that Apple has generated billion of dollars profit from the technology but now the company wanted to get more.
"Apple's complaint contains a lot of assertions," Mollenkopf said as quoted by Forbes. "But in the end this is a commercial dispute over the price of intellectual property."
Watch the report from Bloomberg regarding the Apple lawsuit against Qualcomm below:
