Qualcomm aims to ban sales of Apple's flagship phones in China – report
US chipmaker Qualcomm now wants to extend its lawsuit against Apple, seeking to ban sales of the latest iPhone XS and XR in China after winning a preliminary injunction against older models, according to the Financial Times.
Earlier a Chinese court ordered Apple to stop sales of iPhones in its third largest market. Qualcomm’s injunction claimed that Apple is violating two of its patents relating to photo manipulation and touchscreen apps used in models from the iPhone 6S through iPhone X.
However, the chipmaker filed its complaint last year and that’s why it did not include latest Apple’s flagship phones for 2018.
“We plan to use the same patents to file suit against the three new iPhone models,” Jiang Hongyi, a lawyer at Lexfield Law Offices who is representing Qualcomm in its patent suits, told the Financial Times.
He added that additional lawsuits against Apple’s new iPhone XS, XS Max and XR models are pending in courts in Beijing, Qingdao and Guangzhou.
There was no information on additional legal maneuvers by the companies as of Thursday evening. RT has reached out to Apple, Qualcomm and their lawyers for confirmation.
The case is part of a global patent dispute between the two US tech companies which includes dozens of lawsuits that cover not only software but also hardware issues. While Qualcomm considered the recent injunction as a victory, Apple denied its products were affected by the ban, insisting that all iPhone models still remain available in mainland China. The company has already started an appeal process, asking the court to reconsider its decision.
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