Jury Rules in Favor of Qualcomm, Says Apple Infringed on Three Qualcomm Patents [Updated]

[MacRumors]

Apple and Qualcomm this week wrapped up a patent trial where Apple was accused of infringing on three of Qualcomm's patents, and the verdict from the jury is in -- Apple violated Qualcomm's patents in its iPhones.

According to CNET, the jury today sided with Qualcomm and said that Apple needs to pay Qualcomm upwards of $31 million, which is the total that Qualcomm had asked for in damages.

The patents in question cover a method for allowing a smartphone to quickly connect to the internet once turned on, graphics processing and battery life, and a method for allowing apps to download data more easily by directing traffic between the processor and modem.

During the trial, Apple argued that one of its engineers, Arjuna Siva, had a hand in inventing the technology included in the first patent mentioned above in an attempt to get the patent invalidated, but the jury did not buy Apple's argument.

Apple will undoubtedly appeal the jury's ruling, and the legal battle between Qualcomm and Apple is far from over. Next month, the two companies will be back in court over a lawsuit that Apple levied against Qualcomm after Qualcomm refused to pay $1 billion in rebate payments.

Yesterday, a preliminary ruling went in Apple's favor, with a U.S. District Judge deciding that Qualcomm is obligated to make the rebate payments to Apple under the terms of the cooperation agreement between the two companies.

Update: In a statement to Bloomberg, Apple said that Qualcomm is trying to distract from "larger issues" with patent infringement claims: "Qualcomm's ongoing campaign of patent infringement claims is nothing more than an attempt to distract from the larger issues they face with investigations into their business practices in US federal court, and around the world."


Article Link: Jury Rules in Favor of Qualcomm, Says Apple Infringed on Three Qualcomm Patents [Updated]

 

[nwcs]

1 billion dollar judgment for one side and 31 million dollar for the other side. I think I know which side I’d want to be on.

 

[Corsig]

This see-saw ride is getting boring. Wish it all came to an end already

 

[w5jck]

$31 million is pocket change compared to the $1 billion! No wonder everything costs so much these days. Companies keep suing each other and causing an increase in prices which we consumers wind up paying for.

 

[farewelwilliams]

and tim cook grabs a soggy $31 mil from his shoe

 

[falainber]

1 billion dollar judgment for one side and 31 million dollar for the other side. I think I know which side I’d want to be on.

It's not like that. Apple may get their $1B but it's a part of the cooperation agreement that also includes Apple and its minions paying royalties to Qualcomm. Both Apple and Qualcomm are not paying each other. Qualcomm does not mind to pay their dues as long as Apple pays the royalties. It's Apple that does not want to pay the royalties (in the previously agreed amount) to Qualcomm.

 

[scrapesleon]

Of course Apple did that

 

[DaveP]

No idea how this will eventually shake out, but the lawyers are winning!

 

[w00master]

Apple is so innovative!!!!!

LOL

 

[cmaier]

It's not like that. Apple may get their $1B but it's a part of the cooperation agreement that also includes Apple and its minions paying royalties to Qualcomm. Both Apple and Qualcomm are not paying each other. Qualcomm does not mind to pay their dues as long as Apple pays the royalties. It's Apple that does not want to pay the royalties (in the previously agreed amount) to Qualcomm.

Qualcomm didn’t withhold the rebates because of failure to pay royalties. They withheld them because they theorized that apple cooperated with government investigations against Qualcomm.

 

[Rafterman]

and tim cook grabs a soggy $31 mil from his shoe

Yeah, really. Why did Apple even bother? It's not like Qualcomm is some patent troll. At least they make stuff and $31 mill for Apple is pocket change.

 

[falainber]

Qualcomm didn’t withhold the rebates because of failure to pay royalties. They withheld them because they theorized that apple cooperated with government investigations against Qualcomm.

I do not know what the formalities are but Apple did stop paying royalties to Qualcomm back in 2017.

 

[hipnetic]

Patents and copyrights are evil. The notion that the state can enforce this notion of someone "owning" an idea and prevent anyone else from using the same idea is ridiculous and evil. But it's even sadder that so many people have been hoodwinked into buying into this nonsensical, evil idea.

 

[calzon65]

I guess Apple can send Qualcomm one billion dollars from the billion they collected from Samsung awhile back.

Yea … that's the ticket, these companies can just keep passing around the billion dollars between them.

 

[Carnegie]

1 billion dollar judgment for one side and 31 million dollar for the other side. I think I know which side I’d want to be on.

Yeah, this case isn't particularly important. It's more, from Qualcomm's perspective, for PR purposes. But Qualcomm is surely happy to have an infringement finding against Apple to point to (in addition to the initial determination, from an ALJ in the USITC case, that Apple infringed one of the same patents at issue in this case).

That said, Apple doesn't have a $1 billion judgment against Qualcomm yet. What it got yesterday was summary judgment on some of Qualcomm's claims in the case now before Judge Curiel.

 

[Fixey]

Apple was quite happy to sign a contract with them when it suited them, the contract stated the amount they pay would be based on the price of the product using there technology and Apple had no issues but today Apple is over charging it’s customers for iPhones and relies it will have to pay more in royalties but Apple is greedy it wants it all and that is wrong they signed a contract, perhaps lower the price of the iPhone oh can’t do that we are Apple we want as much as we can from you for a phone that just looks different but basically just the same you have now just a s on the end and that will cost you ££££ more.

Apple needs be punished hard

 

[21stCenturyMan]

Apple has probably spent more than $31 million in legal fees on this case. I don't understand why Apple just doesn't buy Qualcomm.

 

[xnu]

31 million dollars does not seem like a lot to Apple....do you think the money will be transfered by using Apple Pay? Swipe, boop.

 

[Carnegie]

It's not like that. Apple may get their $1B but it's a part of the cooperation agreement that also includes Apple and its minions paying royalties to Qualcomm. Both Apple and Qualcomm are not paying each other. Qualcomm does not mind to pay their dues as long as Apple pays the royalties. It's Apple that does not want to pay the royalties (in the previously agreed amount) to Qualcomm.

Apple didn't stop paying royalties (i.e. start withholding payments to contract manufacturers to cover the licensing fees they paid to Qualcomm) until Qualcomm stopped making payments to Apple which were required by the BCPA they entered into. Then that agreement expired. So, for now, there is no agreed upon amount for the royalties Apple would owe Qualcomm.

 

[SecuritySteve]

Patents and copyrights are evil. The notion that the state can enforce this notion of someone "owning" an idea and prevent anyone else from using the same idea is ridiculous and evil. But it's even sadder that so many people have been hoodwinked into buying into this nonsensical, evil idea.

So trying to create law to protect the rights of companies that invest in research and development is evil? Protecting the fruit of that research and development, which companies paid for, is evil? If we couldn't do that, no one would do research and development, and the world would stagnate. Your world view is flawed, sir.

 

[69Mustang]

That said, Apple doesn't have a $1 billion judgment against Qualcomm yet. What it got yesterday was summary judgment on some of Qualcomm's claims in the case now before Judge Curiel.

True. Even if Qualcommm eventually loses, they still wouldn't have to pay out a billion. They would essentially be at a wash with Apple. Apple would owe QC a billion in royalty payments, QC would owe Apple a billion from the judgement. A wash.

 

[wigby]

Yeah, really. Why did Apple even bother? It's not like Qualcomm is some patent troll. At least they make stuff and $31 mill for Apple is pocket change.

No one wants to hear the answer to your question but the answer is one word:

courage.

I’m not being sarcastic. Apple could’ve paid the royalties and continued to make buckets of money. Instead they went after Qualcomm for a much bigger reason. Now that they appeared to have failed, we can all expect to pay more for Android and Apple phones for outdated but intensely defended patents not being treated as FRAND.

Call Apple greedy all you want but this only raises prices on already overpriced phones for everyone. The only positive things that will come from this is that it puts Apple’s own modem engineering into high gear and will also usher in a plethora of cheaper Chinese phones into the US marketplace.

 

[I7guy]

After all this money changes hands, the only happy players will be the banks.

 

[Ries]

So Qualcomm created technologies that allows us to have the network we have today, but Apple doesn't seems to want to contribute to it. They think they pay too much. In the link, replace "Apple" with "Qualcomm", "Music" with "Network" and "Spotify" with "Apple", Apple are such hypocrites.

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/03/addressing-spotifys-claims/

 

[JPack]

It's not like that. Apple may get their $1B but it's a part of the cooperation agreement that also includes Apple and its minions paying royalties to Qualcomm. Both Apple and Qualcomm are not paying each other. Qualcomm does not mind to pay their dues as long as Apple pays the royalties. It's Apple that does not want to pay the royalties (in the previously agreed amount) to Qualcomm.

Thanks for posting this so others can understand.

It's not $1B vs. $31M.

Apple owes Qualcomm $1B and vice versa due to the rebate arrangement. It's basically a wash.

The $31M is actual news.