Apple sues Qualcomm for $1 billion, chip maker hits back

San Francisco Days after the US government filed a lawsuit against global chip manufacturer Qualcomm of forcing Apple to use its chips in exchange for lower licensing fees the Cupertinobased tech giant has sued Qualcomm for nearly 1 billion over royaltiesAccording to a CNET report in a lawsuit on Friday Apple alleged the wireless chipmaker didnt give fair licensing terms for its processor technologyApple also said Qualcomm sought to punish it for cooperating in a South Korean investigation into Qualcomms licensing practices by withholding a 1 billion rebate the report addedFor many years Qualcomm has unfairly insisted on charging royalties for technologies they have nothing to do with Apple said in a statementThe more Apple innovates with unique features such as TouchID advanced displays and cameras to name just a few the more money Qualcomm collects for no reason and the more expensive it becomes for Apple to fund these innovations the CNET report added quoting the statementMeanwhile Qualcomm called Apple allegations baselessApple has intentionally mischaracterised our agreements and negotiations as well as the enormity and value of the technology we have invented contributed and shared with all mobile device makers through our licensing programme Don Rosenberg Qualcomm Executive Vice President and General Counsel said in a statementApple has been actively encouraging regulatory attacks on Qualcomms business in various jurisdictions around the world as reflected in the recent South Korean Fair Trade Commission decision and FTC complaint by misrepresenting facts and withholding information Rosenberg addedApple designs the processors in iPhones and iPads but buys chips from Qualcomm to connect to 4G LTE and other cellular networksEarlier this week the US Federal Trade Commission FTC accused Qualcomm of maintaining a monopoly over chips for cellular phones through a no license no chips policy under which it will supply its baseband processors only on the condition that cell phone manufacturers agree to Qualcomms preferred license termsThat policy imposed onerous supply and patentlicensing terms to extract high royalties from cell phone makers and weaken competitors the commission saidQualcomm recognised that any competitor that won Apples business would become stronger and used exclusivity to prevent Apple from working with and improving the effectiveness of Qualcomms competitors the FTC statement saidDespite its commitment to license standardessential patents on FRAND terms Qualcomm has consistently refused to license those patents to competing suppliers of baseband processors it addedFair reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms FRAND denote a voluntary licensing commitment that standards organisations request from the owner of an intellectual property right usually a patent that may become essential to practice a technical standardQualcomm refuted FTCs charges saying that the lawsuit was based on flawed legal theoryQualcomm has never withheld or threatened to withhold chip supply in order to obtain agreement to unfair or unreasonable licensing terms The FTCs allegation to the contrary the central thesis of the complaint is wrong the company was quoted as saying in a CNET report