Paul Morris·

Qualcomm Wins First Jury Trial Against Apple In Longstanding Patent Case

Qualcomm Inc. has won the first round of its ongoing global legal struggle with Cupertino-based Apple Inc. A federal jury in San Diego, California, has moved to award Qualcomm Inc. an initial $31.6 million in damages as the bitter patent dispute continues.

Qualcomm and Apple have been locked in an ongoing legal battle for some time now. The San Diego-based company claims that its patents pertaining to graphics processing and efficient use of battery power work hand-in-hand as part of the smartphone DNA to improve overall efficiency and to ultimately reduce the cost of the smartphone.

The claim relates to Apple’s iPhone 7, iPhone 8, and iPhone X models, and, of course, Apple disputes that it owes Qualcomm more royalties for the use of the technology.

As far as round one goes, it seems that a jury sides with Qualcomm Inc. on the initial claims, and of course in an interesting development, where Apple has conceded that at the time when smartphones and data technology was transitioning to 4G, Qualcomm chips were the only ready solution.

However, this is only a very small victory in a case which is set to drag on and could ultimately result in an award of billions of dollars to the business. Apple would be extremely upset about that if it were to happen but has claimed that the patent infringement claims are nothing more than a ruse to distract from a larger issue, according to Apple spokesperson Josh Rosenstock:

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 U.S. federal court, and around the world. While we are disappointed with the outcome, we thank the jury for their service in this case.

Don Rosenberg, General Counsel for Qualcomm Inc., has stated that the victory is the first step toward ultimately holding Apple accountable for “using our valuable technologies without paying for them.” He also stated that those technologies held by Qualcomm and other companies are essentially the foundations of what has allowed Apple to be such a big player in the smartphone market in such a short space of time. We’re not sure that Apple would agree with that sentiment but first blood has been drawn by Qualcomm Inc. as the patent litigation case continues.

(Source: Bloomberg)

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