The on-going legal battle between Qualcomm and Apple has further intensified, with both parties refusing to budge. Barely days after Apple filed lawsuits against Qualcomm the latter has responded by filing fresh infringement cases. In all, Qualcomm has filed three lawsuits alleging that Apple has infringed upon 16 Qualcomm patents in several Iphone models including iPhone 7, 8, and the newly launched Iphone X.
The lawsuit demands undisclosed payments from the Iphone maker and also to bar the tech giant from using these technologies that runs on the rival chipmaker Intel. Among all the infringement issues, the semiconductor giant has especially pointed the uncanny similarities between iPhone X’s multitasking interface and interface of webos used in the now defunct Palm Pre smartphones.
“All of these Palm inventions — owned by Qualcomm — have vastly improved the functionality of mobile devices and the user experience, and all of them are widely found in Apple products without license or permission,” Qualcomm said in one of the lawsuits.
Qualcomm had bought several Palm patent from IT giant HP (Hewlett-Packard) in 2014. Since then Qualcomm has been the parent owner of all these patents.
Among other violations, the semi-conductor major has pointed at Iphone’s ability to respond to a call with a text instead of a voice call, technology that enhances battery life, Iphone’s much talked about portrait mode and capability to refocus the camera by merely tapping on the screen.
Copyright infringement cases have become a common thing over the years in the smartphone industry. Big tech companies are always in hurry to lure customers with their groundbreaking technologies. However, these technologies become a major source of conflict when several big companies vie for their ownership, leading to long drawn legal battle. As happened in the case of Apple and Samsung and now Apple and Qualcomm.
