The relationship between Apple and Qualcomm is getting worse by the minute. What started with patent disputes now appears to have become an all-out legal war, with Qualcomm trying to hit Apple and its partners with all the lawsuits its legal team can think of.
Just yesterday, we told you about the unusual royalty fees Qualcomm is demanding from the money Apple was paying its assemblers for repairs and recycling. You may have thought that’s a bit over-the-top, but not Qualcomm! The chip maker went even further!
It took a deeper dive into the pretrial brief submitted to California’s district court (embedded in the article linked above) to find the more absurd demand Qualcomm is making. In the paragraph pictured below, it is stated that Qualcomm has “asserted” that Foxconn, Pegatron and Wistron, the companies responsible for assembling the majority of Apple’s products, owe Qualcomm more than $1.3 billion in what the company calls “late charges”.
These so-called late charges, according to Qualcomm, are to cover the cost involved in the processing and handling of late payments by the contractors. And you thought the fees online ticket resellers are charging are exuberant!
Basically, Qualcomm is implying that the time its accountants spent processing a few payments cost the company $1.3 billion. Now, we’ve heard that good accountants are worth their weight in gold, but Qualcomm’s must be made of actual diamonds if their time is worth that much.
Of course, any reasonable judge will dismiss such demand almost immediately or force Qualcomm to adjust the number to something reasonable. Still, the fact that it made it there in the first place shows Qualcomm’s approach to these lawsuits: throw everything you can and see what will stick.
It appears we’re far from seeing the end of the Apple - Qualcomm court disputes. If the demands continue to escalate at that rate, we can’t wait to hear what the next case will be about.
Grab Surfshark VPN now at more than 50% off and with 3 extra months for free!
A discussion is a place, where people can voice their opinion, no matter if it
is positive, neutral or negative. However, when posting, one must stay true to the topic, and not just share some
random thoughts, which are not directly related to the matter.
Things that are NOT allowed:
Off-topic talk - you must stick to the subject of discussion
Offensive, hate speech - if you want to say something, say it politely
Spam/Advertisements - these posts are deleted
Multiple accounts - one person can have only one account
Impersonations and offensive nicknames - these accounts get banned
To help keep our community safe and free from spam, we apply temporary limits to newly created accounts:
New accounts created within the last 24 hours may experience restrictions on how frequently they can
post or comment.
These limits are in place as a precaution and will automatically lift.
Moderation is done by humans. We try to be as objective as possible and moderate with zero bias. If you think a
post should be moderated - please, report it.
Have a question about the rules or why you have been moderated/limited/banned? Please,
contact us.
FCC OKs Cingular\'s purchase of AT&T Wireless
Things that are NOT allowed:
To help keep our community safe and free from spam, we apply temporary limits to newly created accounts: