It's not been 24 hours since we published the last chapter of the saga Apple vs. Qualcomm when Ma sued the chip maker for patent infringement and another episode of the battle appeared.
Looking like a counterattack, Qualcomm has now sued for patent infringement and, according to the complaint, the manufacturer claims that Ma infringed five patents regarding radio frequency transceivers, power efficiency in mobile CPUs, device power management and image enhancement using depth-based data. Patents even cover a number of Apple devices, including the latest iPhones 7, 8, and X.
One of the patents that was allegedly infringed relates to the iPhone 7, which includes radio technology allegedly owned by Qualcomm, while the iPhones 8, 8 Plus and X would also have infringing amplifier designs. In addition, the latest handsets would have violated the communication methods detailed in patent 9,154,356.
Other infractions described in the new process would be related to Apple's A10 Fusion processor and used in iPhones 7 and 7 Plus: the first would use a specific method to reduce power consumption, the second deals specifically with SRAM memory.
The latest infringement exposes patent 9,552,633 (which covers “narrow video depth enhancement”, an image enhancement based on data obtained from depth maps captured by camera modules offset, used to create the effect of “Portrait Mode”). This patent covers all models of dual camera system iPhones (7 Plus, 8 Plus and X).
As we may predict, Qualcomm is awaiting trial and wants Apple to pay for non-specified damages, as well as seek an injunction against infringing devices.
Someone needs to warn companies that this is not a catch (or is that?). 😝
via AppleInsider
