Apple launches legal battle with Qualcomm in China

By Barry Eitel

SAN FRANCISCO (AA) – Apple opened up a new legal front Wednesday when it filed two lawsuits against Qualcomm in an intellectual property court in China.

The lawsuits seek 1 billion yuan, ($145 million) in damages from the San Diego-based technology company.

The legal action in Beijing’s Intellectual Property Court comes less than a week after Apple filed a lawsuit against the computer chip maker in the United States that seeks $1 billion in damages.

According to the Chinese court, one of the charges Qualcomm violated China’s anti-trust laws and the other desires the court to determine the terms of a patent license between the two companies for Qualcomm's cellular tech patents.

"These filings by Apple's Chinese subsidiary are just part of Apple's efforts to find ways to pay less for Qualcomm's technology,” Don Rosenberg, executive vice president and general counsel of Qualcomm, said in a statement shortly after the suits were filed. “Apple was offered terms consistent with terms accepted by more than one hundred other Chinese companies and refused to even consider them.”

For years, Qualcomm was the exclusive supplier of the microchips that powered the iPhone, although that agreement was terminated in 2016. Intel now supplies a portion of the chips utilized by Apple.

Apple has not released a comment about the case.

“Qualcomm is prepared to defend its business model anywhere in the world,” Rosenberg said. “We are proud of our history of contributing our inventions to the development and success of the mobile communications ecosystem.”

The Chinese government fined Qualcomm $975 million in 2015 for unfair patent licensing agreements. Late last year, South Korea also fined the company $894 million over similar charges.