The fight between Apple and Qualcomm Got behind. The companies made peace out of court and ended, all of a sudden, with all the disputes spread across the globe in a six-year technology licensing agreement (with the possibility of extending it for two more), as well as a settlement agreement. supply chipsets valid for “several years”.
Even though everything is resolved, some unfoldings of this fight continue to appear. THE The Washington Post had access to some sealed documents (used in the process) which reveal that Apple said one thing publicly but, internally, another.
One of Apple’s tactics was to minimize the importance of Qualcomm’s technology in order to be able to pay less for the use of its technology. Internal memos, on the other hand, said just the opposite. In one, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware, Johny Srouji, stated the following about Qualcomm’s technology: “In terms of engineering, they have been the best.”
The documents also show that Apple already planned to sue Qualcomm in 2014, but preferred to wait until the end of 2016. The reason? An agreement in which Qualcomm would pass on billions of dollars to Apple ended just at the end of 2016. The strategy was to hurt Qualcomm financially and put its licensing model at risk, in the end to get a better deal.
Another example of the tactics used by Apple: the company signed contracts with Huawei and Ericsson to show how Qualcomm was abusing its prices, since this Apple agreement with rivals involved twice as many patents but only cost a fraction. The problem is that Apple closed these contracts with Huawei and Ericsson just in order to “create evidence”, making Qualcomm look more expensive (at least that was the argument used by the chip manufacturer’s lawyer and that it didn’t was hit by Apple).
They went to these other companies and negotiated very cheap deals in the last two years to create the evidence, come here and say that these guys are the good guys because they are getting less for their patents and we are the bad guys.
In the end, the The Washington Post suggested that Apple chose to make peace with Qualcomm not only to be able to use 5G modems on its iPhones in 2020, but because it saw that it could not succeed in court with its arguments.
via AppleInsider
