Apple intensifies its legal assault on Qualcomm

Apple has doubled down on its legal assault on Qualcomm, arguing to a U.S. federal court that license agreements that secure the chip maker a cut of every iPhone manufactured were invalid, reports Reuters.

In January, Apple filed a lawsuit again Qualcomm, the world’s dominant supplier of baseband processors, alleging the chip supplier demanded unfair terms for its technology. The same month, the Federal Trade Commission filed 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.

In a Tuesday brief seen by Reuters, Apple blasted Qualcomm’s practice of requiring customers to sign patent license agreements before purchasing chips, known in the industry as “no license, no chips.” The license allows Qualcomm to take a percentage of the overall selling price for iPhone in exchange for supplying the modem chips that let phones connect to cellular data networks.

Apple argued that the ruling involving Lexmark showed that Qualcomm was entitled to only “one reward” for its intellectual property and products. Qualcomm should be allowed to charge for either a patent license or a chip, but not both, Apple argued.