Everything was going smooth between Apple and Qualcomm until the former alleged that the chip maker was charging royalties on technologies that were not even related to them. That’s indeed a pretty serious allegation and Qualcomm was subsequently slapped with a $1 billion lawsuit.
However, it doesn’t look like Qualcomm is too keen on quietly taking it from the iPhone maker. That’s evident from the fact that it has now filed a counter lawsuit against Apple alleging a serious breach of contract.
Apart from the breach of contract, the SoC manufacturer says, Cupertino also allegedly interfered with existing Qualcomm licensees that manufacture iPads and iPhones for Apple.Adding more to the long list of charges, it was also mentioned that Apple did not take advantage of the full performance capabilities of the Qualcomm LTE chips in the iPhone 7 lineup.
In the counter lawsuit, Qualcomm is seeking damages from Apple in addition to asking the court to ensure that the California-based firm can no longer interfere with its agreements with third parties that manufacture iPhones and iPads on behalf of Apple.
Even if the San Diego, California-based SoC maker is on the right side of the existing regulations in the dispute against Apple, it also has displayed a tendency to deviate from the rules defining a fair play in the past. Most notably, when it comes to controlling a huge market share in the mobile chipset arena. For example, have you ever wondered why is it that Samsung is unable to provide its SoC to other manufacturers? That’s primarily because Qualcomm has been preventing the South Korean firm from doing so by way of a standard-essential patent license.