Apple vs. Qualcomm Trial Begins Today

[cmaier]

Lucy Ko should write a book when she retires.

Why? This case is in San Diego, no San Jose.

 

[PaladinGuy]

If Apple wins we can look forward to the iPhone XS Max costing $1445 instead of $1449

Yeah right. Like they’d pass on savings to the customer. You mean share holder dividends would go up?

 

[Carnegie]

My bad. So how many anti trust cases have there been that they lost?
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Then they should have made an agreement before using their IP

(1) They tried to reach a licensing agreement. Both parties acknowledge that they weren't able to agree on terms. But when it comes to SEPs, part of the point of FRAND obligations is that would-be licensees don't necessarily need to have a licensing agreement in place in order to use the SEPs. It would create an unworkable situation if they did. SEP holders could use the leverage they gain from having their patents included in standards to extort unreasonable royalties from industry participants or block some industry participants from making standard-compliant products altogether.

(2) Until about 2017, Apple didn't need a license of its own (from Qualcomm) because its contract manufacturers had licensing agreements with (and were paying royalties to) Qualcomm. Some of those licensing agreements were entered into before Apple started using the contract manufacturers and Apple wasn't allowed to know the terms of those licensing agreements. But Qualcomm's patent rights in the licensed patents were exhausted when the contract manufacturers paid to use them (even leaving aside the patent exhaustion which occurred when Qualcomm sold modems to Apple or the contract manufacturers), so Apple wasn't infringing the patents in question.
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As I understand it, Cook didn't have any real issues with Qualcomm until AAPL decided to move their iPhone product line (so) Upscale, starting with the iPhone X.

Prior to that, there was NO real rift between the two companies.

Is that correct ?

No. Apple's objections to Qualcomm's licensing (and other) practices go back many years. It's just that it wasn't until recently that Apple was in a position that allowed it, without doing a great deal of damage to its business, to aggressively push back against Qualcomm's practices. There were a number of factors, to include Intel being able to supply some of the modems that Apple would need and the expiration of the BCPA between Apple and Qualcomm. This suit was filed after that BCPA expired.

Apple suggested to the FTC at least as early as 2012 that it should investigate the industry's (read: Qualcomm's) licensing practices.

 

[Spock1234]

https://www.techradar.com/news/apple-loses-court-case-in-battle-with-qualcomm-ordered-to-pay-fine

Two of those patents were found to be invalid. And, Apple has already implemented a solution that works around these patents.
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Apple is whining about $7.50/iPhone in patent fees.

.... which more than all other SEP holders put together. If every SEP holder made the same demand your smartphone would cost tens of thousands of $ (>5,000 SEPs at $7.50 ea = >35,000 per phone, even before manufacturing costs. Your flip phone says 'Hi'.

Qualcomm's SEPs are no more important than any other, and there is no justification for Qualcomm's demands. Not to mention Q demanding licensing fees from the contract manufacturers while double-dipping with royalty from Apple. "Patent exhaustion' has been discussed extensively on this site, and no one with even an elementary understanding of SEPs would accept Q's interpretations.

The icing on the cake is that Qualcomm withdraws lawsuits every time Apple asks for their patents to be evaluated for validity.
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• In April 2017 Qualcomm and Blackberry had a binding arbitration case. Qualcomm lost and now owes $940 million to Blackberry. Since it didn't go to court, details are limited. What we do know is it was related to royalty rebates due to Blackberry over the number of devices sold. Which sounds eerily similar to what Apple is complaining about (with Apple winning a preliminary $1 billion against Qualcomm just recently).
  
• In June 2018 Qualcomm was fined $1.2 billion by the EU for antitrust issues arising from Qualcomm paying Apple money to ensure exclusivity in using Qualcomm modems. Just a week ago Qualcomm lost another part of their antitrust case by trying to prevent the handing over of data to the EU regarding their antitrust case.
• In October 2017 Qualcomm was fined $774 million by Taiwan's Fair Trade Commission for overcharging royalties for their cellular modems and IP. Qualcomm struck a deal with Taiwan and had their fine "reduced" to $93 million in exchange for investing $700 million over 5 years into Taiwan's tech sector. Several companies are still protesting this decision as Qualcomm wasn't forced to change all their licensing practices.
• In December 2016, South Korea fined Qualcomm $854 million for antitrust issues surrounding modem and IP royalty/licensing. Prior to this Qualcomm was fined $243 million way back in 2009 over kickback issues to cell manufacturers to use Qualcomm modems exclusively. This fine was lowered slightly to $200 million just last month.
• In February 2015 Qualcomm accepted a penalty of $975 million in China over violating anti-monopoly laws over - you guessed it, royalties and licensing related to modems and related IP.
• The FTC in the US just wrapped up a trial (now awaiting a decision) accusing Qualcomm of antitrust practices related to their modems and licensing practices.
• Apple and Qualcomm start their trial today regarding, again, over payment of royalties.

And despite all of this people still have the nerve to think Qualcomm is in the right?

Oh, Snap. Excellent reply.

 

[DeepIn2U]

Does anyone know of the former MLB player now traffic control person that’s part of the Jury? I tried googling but nothing definitive came up.

 

[Carnegie]

CNBC is reporting that a source says that Apple and Qualcomm have settled their royalty dispute.
[doublepost=1555441784][/doublepost]So... it's true, they've reached an agreement which ends all ongoing litigation...

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/04/qualcomm-and-apple-agree-to-drop-all-litigation/