Qualcomm Sues Apple Contract Manufacturers (reuters.com)

Qualcomm on Wednesday sued the manufacturers that make iPhones for Apple for failing to pay royalties on the chip maker's technology, widening its legal battle with the world's most valuable company. Qualcomm's lawsuit, filed Wednesday in a federal district court in San Diego, accuses Compal, Foxconn, Pegatron, and Wistron of breaching longstanding patent-licensing agreements with Qualcomm by halting royalty payments on Qualcomm technology used in iPhones and iPads. From a report: Apple sued Qualcomm in January, accusing it of overcharging for chips and refusing to pay some $1 billion in promised rebates. Qualcomm said in the complaint that Apple is trying to force the company to agree to a "unreasonable demand for a below-market direct license." Qualcomm said last month that Apple had decided to withhold royalty payments to its contract manufacturers that are owed to the chipmaker, for sales made in the first quarter of 2017, until the dispute is resolved in court. "While not disputing their contractual obligations to pay for the use of Qualcomm's inventions, the manufacturers say they must follow Apple's instructions not to pay," Qualcomm said in a statement on Wednesday.

Comments

Why won't Qualcomm stop selling chips to Apple?

[known_coward_69]

Apple is playing hardball by not paying them. Hard to run a business with no money coming in.

Why can't Qualcomm simply refuse to sell to Apple until the lawsuit is done? Kind of hard to build iPhones with no radio chips in them. And I bet it's just as hard for Intel to ramp up production to cover the shortfall.

Re:Why won't Qualcomm stop selling chips to Apple?

[Anonymous Coward]

A significant portion of their revenue comes from Apple.

So... what next?

[BronsCon]

Qualcomm seems to want to be paid every time one of their chips changes hands: when the chip is sold to the manufacturer, when the phone containing the chip is shipped to the company that contracted the manufacturing company, again when the phone designer ships the phone to a store...

When the store sells the phone to the end user?

When the end user sells the phone on Craigslist or eBay, or trades it in to their carrier?

Where does it stop?

I hope Apple and Foxconn absolutely crush them.