Chipmaker Qualcomm has reported that a Chinese court has judged in its favor in a patent case against Apple in China, and a preliminary order has been issued prohibiting the import and sale of several iPhone models in China. This court decision thus makes impossible for the Chinese residents to buy iPhone 6S, 6S Plus, 7, 7 Plus, 8, 8 Plus and iPhone X models, even though it does not affect the phones launched this year, namely, the iPhone XR, XS, and XS Max.
The news has caused Apple’s shares to fall more than 2% at the opening of the market, while Qualcomm’s shares reacted with rises close to 4% at the beginning of the day.
The decision came from the Fuzhou Intermediate People’s Court in China, the same court that this year banned the import of some of the chips from the chipmaker Micron Technology in China.
Qualcomm Won A Legal Dispute With Apple In China
Qualcomm, which initially filed the case in China in late 2017, has received the court’s green light. The court decided that Apple has violated two of Qualcomm’s software patents to resize photographs and manage touch-screen applications.
“Apple continues to benefit from our intellectual property while refusing to compensate us,” said Don Rosenberg, general counsel for Qualcomm, in a statement. But because patents directly affect the software, Apple can make changes to its operating system to prevent patent infringement, so if the changes come, they can continue to sell their banned smartphones in the Asian country without an agreement with Qualcomm.
The patents that made the subject of the lawsuit are different from those both companies are disputing in other cases in their broad legal dispute. In fact, Qualcomm also asked the US regulators to ban the import of several iPhone models for patent reasons, but so far US officials have refused to do so.
