Imagination Technologies will resolve its licensing issues with Apple using a dispute resolution procedure
The negotiations for a new licensing deal between Imagination Technologies and its biggest customer Apple have obviously reached a dead end. As a result of this failed attempt to resolve the latest controversy with Apple, related to intellectual property, Imagination starts a dispute resolution procedure, Reuters reports.
Imagination Technologies didn’t actually say what the dispute was about, but, considering the latest news from the companies, we can assume that it concerns the future use of their GPU designs by Apple, the intellectual property related to them and the financial details involved. Earlier, the British GPU maker expressed doubt if Apple could actually produce a graphics chip without infringing its intellectual property, so the dispute between the parties was almost inevitable. That’s why, the latest development of the situation is not a big surprise, especially after Imagination’s attempts to resolve the situation through informal means have failed.
Clues about possible disagreement between them emerged last month, when Apple announced plans to terminate the relationship with its GPU supplier by 2019. The news that the Californian tech giant works on an “independent graphics design” sent Imagination’s shares 70% down and, about two weeks later, the Swedish banking conglomerate UBS predicted that Apple will pay only 10 cents per iPhone to Imagination Technologies by 2019, reducing royalty payments per iPhone by more than 60%. As analysts pointed out then, this puts the future of the GPU chips manufacturer in serious danger, since about the half of its current business depends on the contracts with the Cupertino company.
Imagination Technologies didn’t actually say what the dispute was about, but, considering the latest news from the companies, we can assume that it concerns the future use of their GPU designs by Apple, the intellectual property related to them and the financial details involved. Earlier, the British GPU maker expressed doubt if Apple could actually produce a graphics chip without infringing its intellectual property, so the dispute between the parties was almost inevitable. That’s why, the latest development of the situation is not a big surprise, especially after Imagination’s attempts to resolve the situation through informal means have failed.
source: Imagination Technologies via Reuters
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