After winning one of the steps in the lawsuit against Apple in Germany and determine that some models of iPhones should be banned from the country, Qualcomm failed to support the most recent patent infringement charge against the company over there, as Reuters.
In that case, the Mannheim regional court dismissed Qualcomm’s case as «unfounded», saying that patent EP2460270B1 was not infringed by Apple in gadgets of the company. The chip maker said it will appeal the decision based, precisely, on the other lawsuit that resulted in the banning of the iPhones 7, 7 Plus, 8 and 8 Plus in Germany.
Apple has a history of infringing our patents. While we disagree with the Mannheim court decision and will appeal, we will continue to enforce our (intellectual property) rights against Apple worldwide.
Intellectual property specialist Florian Müller, from FOSS Patents, had predicted that Qualcomm’s charge against the patent in question would be dropped and that the victory over Apple at the end of last year was worth little in practical terms – as banned devices remain available from authorized Apple resellers.
The Munich decision affects only 3% of Apple’s German sales of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 (direct sales to end users through its 15 retail stores and its German online store). Even that 3% of sales from the two oldest generations of the iPhone in a market that is generally not big for Apple (significant, but far from substantial) are not lost because some will buy other iPhone models and just buy these iPhone models resellers.
Last week, Qualcomm filed a security deposit of € 1.34 billion to guarantee an end to the marketing of such devices in Germany; Apple is also appealing.
via 9to5Mac
