Qualcomm goes on offensive against Apple in legal dispute

Apple has been hit with a billion-dollar legal case from chip-maker Qualcomm just months after the tech giant launched proceedings against the same firm.

In January, Apple filed a suit against Qualcomm that alleged that the chipmaker was charging for patents that were unrelated to the agreements made by the two companies.

Qualcomm turned the tables on Apple overnight by accusing the Cupertino-based company of failing to pay royalties owed to it over the years it has provided chips used in the flagship iPhone device.

The counter-case, which was filed at the US District Court for the Southern District of California, claims that Apple failed to honour the agreements made between the tech firms.

"Apple refuses to acknowledge the well established and continuing value of those technologies."

"Apple could not have built the incredible iPhone franchise that has made it the most profitable company in the world, capturing over 90% of smartphone profits, without relying upon Qualcomm’s fundamental cellular technologies," Qualcomm executive VP and general counsel Don Rosenberg said in a statement.

"Now, after a decade of historic growth, Apple refuses to acknowledge the well established and continuing value of those technologies."

Apple's initial case claimed that it had been extorted by Qualcomm for what it referred to as "basic smartphone technology", something Rosenberg described as nonsensical.

"[Apple] has launched a global attack on Qualcomm and is attempting to use its enormous market power to coerce unfair and unreasonable license terms from Qualcomm."

Processor parallels

The spat has parallels for UK chip designer Imagination Technologies, which earlier this month felt the sting from Apple's ongoing push to take more control over its hardware as the US giant said it plans to stop using the UK-based group's processor chips in its new products as it had developed its own version of the hardware.

Imagination seemingly hinted at potential legal action, with Apple having used its technology at the core of its graphics processor in the operating system of the iPhone, iPod and iPad since they were first manufactured.

"Imagination believes that it would be extremely challenging to design a brand new GPU architecture from basics without infringing its intellectual property rights, accordingly Imagination does not accept Apple's assertions," Imagination said.

Analyst Nick James at broker Numis argued that the case against Apple "would be very strong" if it tried to go it alone without a commercial agreement.