Qualcomm seeks to halt Apple's sales & manufacturing of iPhones in China
Mobile chipmaker Qualcomm has filed multiple lawsuits in China, looking to block both sales and manufacturing of iPhones in the country -- something that would cripple Apple worldwide, if successful.
The suits were filed through a Beijing intellectual property court and allege patent infringement, Bloomberg reported on Friday. It wasn't immediately clear what patents are involved.
The two companies are involved in a global legal battle, however, kickstarted by a South Korean antitrust ruling last year. Apple subsequently sued Qualcomm, accusing it of withholding nearly $1 billion in rebates as retaliation for cooperating with Korean officials. Since then Apple has ordered its suppliers to stop paying royalties, and Qualcomm has launched countersuits.
Various government bodies have pursued Qualcomm over its business practices, like Apple accusing it of abusing market dominance to impose unfair terms. Most recently the Taiwanese Fair Trade Commission leveled a $773 million fine, also forcing the company to remove offending terms from earlier client contracts.
Apple can't afford to lose the Chinese suits, as the iPhone is its primary revenue source, and the vast majority of units are assembled in China before being shipped elsewhere. Manufacturing in India is in its earliest stages, limited to the iPhone SE.
It will likely take weeks or months before Chinese legal action makes progress. Apple will probably fight to have the cases dismissed if at all possible.
The suits were filed through a Beijing intellectual property court and allege patent infringement, Bloomberg reported on Friday. It wasn't immediately clear what patents are involved.
The two companies are involved in a global legal battle, however, kickstarted by a South Korean antitrust ruling last year. Apple subsequently sued Qualcomm, accusing it of withholding nearly $1 billion in rebates as retaliation for cooperating with Korean officials. Since then Apple has ordered its suppliers to stop paying royalties, and Qualcomm has launched countersuits.
Various government bodies have pursued Qualcomm over its business practices, like Apple accusing it of abusing market dominance to impose unfair terms. Most recently the Taiwanese Fair Trade Commission leveled a $773 million fine, also forcing the company to remove offending terms from earlier client contracts.
Apple can't afford to lose the Chinese suits, as the iPhone is its primary revenue source, and the vast majority of units are assembled in China before being shipped elsewhere. Manufacturing in India is in its earliest stages, limited to the iPhone SE.
It will likely take weeks or months before Chinese legal action makes progress. Apple will probably fight to have the cases dismissed if at all possible.
Comments
Why are they keep looking for more trouble? Is it not enough of a problem for them that they started a shit-storm already, so they are looking for the ways to intensify it?
Perhaps WHEN China dismisses the suit, I'd bet Qualcomm would immediately be ready to sit at a table to discuss a settlement, in which I really hope Apple takes it all the way and fine Qualcomm into obscurity.
Qualcomm really screwed themselves with their ability to run their shop into the ground. It's time to put QC out to pasture as an example of yet another company that didn't learn from history's mistakes. Get arrogant thinking you're the best and most likely you'll get shot down quickly.
I suspect it would be Qualcomm that would end up being under the microscope. I'd expect many other shops and suppliers will come into the case to spill the beans about how Qualcomm is screwing them too.
Not even a reason to ask that question. The answer is obvious. Entire manufacturing cities exist which do nothing but crank out iPhones. Hundreds of thousands would lose their jobs. Moreover, it's an extreme and absurd request. Stopping all manufacturing of a product of a country? Oh, OK. I can't imagine any court in the world would go for that one in a case like this. Last..Apple has all the cards here. Even if Apple lost and was out of appeals, it is so big and powerful that it could exert pressure on then Chinese government to change the ruling. Can you imagine that phone call?
President Xi: Hello?
Apple: Hi. Either fix this or we are taking tens of billions of dollars in business out of your country. We're taking the 5 million jobs we've created there. We'll close every store, factory and kiosk and give Donald Trump the biggest present he could ever imagine..moving all our manufacturing from China to the US. Then he'll go on Twitter, laugh at you, apply trade sanctions, and maybe station 100,000 troops on your border (since he will have already flattened North Korea). That's right, Mr. President. You're not just going to war with Apple. There will literally be military consequences for this decision. Let us know!
I wonder who is driving this, the Qualcomm Board, or the CEO? Or perhaps Legal?
but if Qualcomm does pull this out of there arse.
Foxconn and Wistron and so on are international.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxconn
Even Qualcomm win, after years of trail and appeal, Apple will already switch to intel or others.
If you think China need Apple more than Apple need China, you are wrong.
if you think China don’t think of that before the rueling, you are even more wrong.
If you think you can force Xie or China to comply for a company, you are very wrong.
if you think Donald can last that long, you are super wrong.
The wages of globalization, I'm afraid. They've tied themselves up in this and now they have to do what we say.
Any day now.™
Is Qualcomm betting (or perhaps already confirms) on alternative Android makers to back them up and aiming to disrupt the momentum of Apple to buy time to catch up, knowing Apple's chip advancements and in-house chip designs are going to hit them so hard in the near future that they may not have another chance than now to recover?
It's more like a platform vs platform battle on the hardware frontier, different from the previous software/UI battle of A vs S.
Will all those Android makers in China really back Qualcomm up? Or will those Android makers in China somehow join in the battle indirectly to force Qualcomm into lowering the cost of using their chips?