Qualcomm’s New Lawsuit Cites Six Patents, Seeks US Sales Ban of Infringing Apple Products
by Anton Shilov on July 6, 2017 9:00 PM EST
Qualcomm is about to enter another round of its legal battle against Apple. With a new complaint, the company is set to file on Friday with the U.S. ITC. In the complaint, Qualcomm accuses Apple of infringing its patents that cover various technologies that can extend the battery life of a mobile device and seeks to ban sales of Apple’s devices in the U.S with a limited exclusion order for non-Qualcomm baseband Apple devices, and a Cease and Desist Order for all infringing devices.
Back in January, Apple filed a lawsuit against Qualcomm and accused the company of overcharging for its chips and withholding a payment of about $1 billion in promised rebates, which is what Apple wants to get from its partner. Several days before Apple sued Qualcomm, the U.S. ITC charged the latter company with multiple antitrust violations, one of which was preclusion of Apple from sourcing baseband modems from Qualcomm’s rivals. In April, Qualcomm countersued Apple and accused the company of numerous wrongdoings, including interfering Qualcomm’s business relationships with manufacturers of Apple iOS devices as well as of artificially limiting capabilities of Qualcomm’s modem in the iPhone 7. In the new lawsuit to be filed on Friday, Qualcomm is accusing Apple of infringing six of its patents not related to wireless networks and 'is seeking a Cease and Desist Order barring further sales of infringing Apple products that have already been imported and to halt the marketing, advertising, demonstration, warehousing of inventory for distribution and use of those imported products in the United States'.
The patents in question (see table below for details) cover various techniques that can extend the battery life of mobile devices. The patents are not covered by any industry standard, are not essential parts of any devices, and all six patents were issued in the last four years, Qualcomm asserts. At least one of the patents covers an essential aspect of any modern mobile SoC (e.g., a GPU stream processor supporting mixed precision instruction execution) and it could be considered impossible to build one without infringing that particular patent.
Qualcomm claims that Apple’s iOS devices use the aforementioned Qualcomm’s patents all the time, yet the hardware maker does not pay any royalties. What is ironic about the lawsuit is that while it does not involve Qualcomm’s wireless patents, it seeks to stop sales of iPhones and iPads with modems that compete against those from Qualcomm, essentially forcing Apple to buy baseband processors only from Qualcomm.
| Qualcomm's Patents Allegedly Infringed by Apple | |||||
| U.S. Patent No. (Year of Issue) |
Name | Abstract Description | Qualcomm's Description | ||
| 8,633,936 (2014) |
Programmable streaming processor with mixed precision instruction execution. | Relates to a programmable streaming processor that is capable of executing mixed-precision (e.g., full-precision, half-precision) instructions using different execution units. | Enables high performance and rich visual graphics for games while increasing a mobile device’s battery life. |
||
| 8,698,558 (2014) |
Low-voltage power-efficient envelope tracker. | Techniques for generating a power supply for an amplifier and/or other circuits. | Extends battery life by building intelligence into the system so the antenna is always using just the right amount of battery power to transmit, whether it be video, text, or voice. |
||
| 8,487,658 (2013) |
Compact and robust level shifter layout design. | The field of invention relates to a semiconductor device and methods of manufacturing a semiconductor device handling a plurality of voltage, specifically multi-voltage circuits for shifting the voltage level between voltage domains. | Maximizes smartphone performance while extending battery life by connecting high voltage circuits and low voltage circuits with efficient interfaces. |
||
| 8,838,949 (2014) |
Direct scatter loading of executable software image from a primary processor to one or more secondary processor in a multi-processor system. | In a multi-processor system, an executable software image including an image header and a segmented data image is scatter loaded from a first processor to a second processor. | Enables “flashless boot” which allows your smartphone to connect to the internet quickly after being powered on, while extending battery life and reducing memory size. |
||
| 9,535,490 (2017) |
Power saving techniques in computing devices. | As the name implies. | Enables the applications on your smartphone to get their data to and from the internet quickly and efficiently by acting as a smart “traffic cop” between the apps processor and the modem. |
||
| 9,608,675 (2013) |
Power tracker for multiple transmit signals sent simultaneously. | Techniques for generating a power tracking supply voltage for a circuit (e.g., a power amplifier). The circuit may process multiple transmit signals being sent simultaneously on multiple carriers at different frequencies. | Enables a mobile device to send high-speed data such as live video from your phone by combining many lanes of traffic into a data super-highway while prolonging battery life. |
||
Qualcomm expects the ITC investigation to start in August and for the case go to trial in 2018. In addition to the complaint with the ITC, Qualcomm also filed a lawsuit against Apple in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California alleging of the same wrongdoings.
We have questions fired at Qualcomm and Intel and will update in due course when we get responses.
Official Qualcomm Press Release
SAN DIEGO, July 6, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Qualcomm Incorporated (Nasdaq: QCOM) today announced that it is filing a complaint with the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) alleging that Apple has engaged in the unlawful importation and sale of iPhones that infringe one or more claims of six Qualcomm patents covering key technologies that enable important features and functions in iPhones. Qualcomm is requesting that the ITC institute an investigation into Apple's infringing imports and ultimately issue a Limited Exclusion Order (LEO) to bar importation of those iPhones and other products into the United States to stop Apple's unlawful and unfair use of Qualcomm's technology. The Company is seeking the LEO against iPhones that use cellular baseband processors other than those supplied by Qualcomm's affiliates. Additionally, Qualcomm is seeking a Cease and Desist Order barring further sales of infringing Apple products that have already been imported and to halt the marketing, advertising, demonstration, warehousing of inventory for distribution and use of those imported products in the United States.
"Qualcomm's inventions are at the heart of every iPhone and extend well beyond modem technologies or cellular standards," said Don Rosenberg, executive vice president and general counsel of Qualcomm. "The patents we are asserting represent six important technologies, out of a portfolio of thousands, and each is vital to iPhone functions. Apple continues to use Qualcomm's technology while refusing to pay for it. These lawsuits seek to stop Apple's infringement of six of our patented technologies."
The six patents, U.S. Patent No. 8,633,936, U.S. Patent No. 8,698,558, U.S. Patent No. 8,487,658, U.S. Patent No. 8,838,949, U.S. Patent No. 9,535,490, and U.S. Patent No. 9,608,675 enable high performance in a smartphone while extending battery life. Each of the patents does so in a different way for different popular smartphone features; https://www.qualcomm.com/iphone-infographic. While the technologies covered by the patents are central to the performance of the iPhone, the six asserted patents are not essential to practice any standards in a mobile device or subject to a commitment to offer to license such patents.
Qualcomm today also filed a complaint against Apple in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California alleging that Apple infringes the same six patents in the complaint filed in the ITC. The complaint seeks damages and injunctive relief.
Qualcomm expects that the ITC investigation will commence in August and that the case will be tried next year.
Related Reading
Source: Qualcomm
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lilmoe - Friday, July 7, 2017 - link
Let it burn. Lolololololps: both these companies, especially, are patent trolls.
osxandwindows - Friday, July 7, 2017 - link
I have a feeling that you don't even know what a "patent troll" is.Alexvrb - Saturday, July 8, 2017 - link
Yeah osx nailed it. NEITHER of them remotely fits the definition of a patent troll.TETRONG - Friday, July 7, 2017 - link
That's the best they can come up with?Some vague shit they snuck by the patent office when these phones had already been on the market for years using these techniques.
Gotta love how they act like they invented everything.. uh what about Motorola, Nokia, Ericcson, Broadcom, etc..
License your shit fair and square or GTFO.. they're delirious to think they deserve an ever increasing percentage of the sale price of the device.
The patent office needs to reexamine these cause they rubber-stamped straight garbage as usual.
Ridiculous!
jjj - Friday, July 7, 2017 - link
Qualcomm needs to settle this as they can't afford an unfavorable court ruling and that's more than likely since they are in the wrong.So this move is simply aimed at gaining leverage and push for a better settlement.
Apple likely lacks the guts to see this through and set things right once and for all.The only real hope for normality is for regulators to do their duty. Regulators have allowed Qualcomm to earn tens of undeserved billions from licensing and the consumer is the one paying for it.This is much worse than the VW scandal, at least there they could pretend they didn't knew but this one has always been in the open and they just let them do it.
Qualcomm should be stripped of all standard essential patents and barred from holding any such patents for the next 20 years.And ofc they deserve a 100 billion fine at the global level.
Or we keep getting Brexits and Trumps as the population can't take it anymore and makes idiotic choices.
ddriver - Friday, July 7, 2017 - link
How are they in the wrong, they have products and IP which they sell on their terms. Nobody is forcing anyone to use those, but if you do, you have to pay.Smells like crapple fanboys here... you know, your beloved company is just as crappy as qualcmom, if not even more so, at least QC's patents are stuff they actually came up with, whereas crapple patents common and long standing stuff like rounded rectangles.
osxandwindows - Friday, July 7, 2017 - link
If you want to get into the US, market, you have to go with qualcomm.So yes they are being forced.
ddriver - Friday, July 7, 2017 - link
The issue should be taken with the US government regulatory agencies. If what you say is true, then it was them who allowed a monopolist to build up exploitative infrastructure.If the government is willing to approve the establishment of a communication network that mandates a single IP provider, then I think we should disband the government as well, together with QC and apple :)
melgross - Friday, July 7, 2017 - link
Your use of the word “crapple” shows that your head is in the toilet. No pint in arguing with you.ddriver - Friday, July 7, 2017 - link
Actually "crapple" is far more illustrative of the reality of that company than "apple", and the fact that you don't have the capacity to realize that is also indicative you don't have the capacity to argue with me ;)Whining about QC "patent trolling" given the fact that you have patent-trolled over rounded rectangles is very, very crappy. And that's just one of the many aspects in which this company is crappy. So crapple it is. That's just calling things what they are. If you have a problem with objectivity, that's your own problem ;)