In an effort to keep charging Apple over the use of its patents in China, Qualcomm has filed lawsuits against Apple in a move that could halt the production and sales of iPhones in China.
According to the law suite filed in an intellectual property court in Beijing, the mobile chip manufacturer claimed that Apple violated its patents and the company is seeking injunctive relief over the misuse of its IP.
Qualcomm which is the world biggest provider of mobile chips, gets a portion of revenue from licensing its technologies to hundreds of device makers. According to Qualcomm, the fee is charged based on the phone's value rather than the component.
Now since Qualcomm owns patents related to 3G and 4G phones, phone makers that builds 3G and 4G capable phones will have to pay them a licensing fee even if they don't use Qualcomm chips. And thats including Apple who only wants to pay for the chips alone, and not the entire phone.
Apple on its part has argued that Qualcomm is "effectively taxing Apple's innovation" and that Apple "shouldn't have to pay them for technology breakthroughs they have nothing to do with."