Apple and Qualcomm release all lawsuits in surprising settlement
Apple and Qualcomm have signed an agreement to settle all ongoing lawsuits and put an end to the promising legal battle that has seen the two tech giants sue each other worldwide.
As part of the settlement, Apple will pay Qualcomm for an undisclosed amount. The companies have reached a six-year global patent license agreement, which can be extended by another two years. They have also agreed that Qualcomm will deliver parts to Apple for several years, which probably means that the modems will again appear in the iPhone.
Apple and Qualcomm have been fighting over Qualcomm's patent law practices over the past two years. Apple claimed that Qualcomm launched unreasonably high fees for key patents and used its position as the dominant provider of smartphone modems to charge these fees.
The lawsuit began in January 201[ads1]7, and the two companies just came into court this week. Words for the settlement came while the two companies still read their opening arguments.
Qualcomm has been sued over licensing practices and monopolistic behavior of regulators worldwide. In the United States, it still awaits the results of the lawsuit it fought against the Federal Trade Commission in January, filed just days before Apple's. The company has been fined hundreds of millions of dollars over these practices.
But in recent months, Qualcomm has managed to put pressure on Apple. It was able to win iPhone bans in Germany and China over patent breaches, and it won a lawsuit in the US that appreciated only a small number of patents. Several gains for Qualcomm could have ended up increasing the price for Apple, which may have made the company more inclined to settle.
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