Qualcomm has fired the latest shot in a legal battle with Apple, charging the tech giant with mischaracterizing Qualcomm’s business and siccing international regulators on it.
In a Monday federal court filing, world’s dominant supplier of baseband processors said Apple wouldn’t have an iPhone business if it weren’t for fair licensing of essential tech from Qualcomm. The company says it went out of its way to offer alternative licensing (which Apple rejected), and that, in suing Qualcomm, Apple is motivated by reducing the cost to make iPhones.
In January 2016, Apple filed a lawsuit against Qualcomm, alleging the chip supplier demanded unfair terms for its technology. The same month saw the Federal Trade Commission file a complaint in federal district court charging Qualcomm with using anticompetitive tactics to maintain its monopoly in the supply of a key semiconductor device used in cell phones and other consumer products.
