Qualcomm sued Apple alleging that the iPhone company breached a contract that governs the use of its phone-chip software which is needed to configure chips with other parts of the phone and communicate with networks, reported Bloomberg.
The lawsuit against iPhone maker was filed on Wednesday in California State Court, San Diego. The chip maker says that Apple may have used its unprecedented access to Qualcomm’s code to help its rival Intel. The lawsuit defines another plot for a legal dispute between the two tech companies which started earlier this year when Apple sued chip maker accusing the company of overcharging and filed a $1 billion lawsuit.
Apple makes use of Qualcomm’s modem chips that connect the Apple devices to wireless networks. Apple accused chip maker of engaging in illegal tactics and forced the company to pay a separate licensing fee for the same chips. It said that the company is charging its customers unfairly to maintain its strong position in the chip market. On the other hand, Qualcomm responded that Apple has lied to regulators in an attempt to force it into charging less and called the lawsuit baseless.
According to the lawsuit, the largest mobile chip manufacturer alleges Apple of not separating its engineers working with Qualcomm and Intel Corp which the company was intended to do. It further says that those Apple engineers working with Intel may have been given access to its technologies. The lawsuit also notes that Apple made a request via email for proprietary information from Qualcomm and included an Intel engineer on the distribution list.
Qualcomm’s profit is dropping time to time due to lack of royalty payments from Apple and its suppliers. Apple and Samsung together account for almost 40 percent of comapany’s revenue. Apple halted its royalty payments to the chip maker when it filed the lawsuit against Apple.
In a recent report emerged online, Apple is making iPhones and iPads for 2018 that don’t use Qualcomm’s chips. If it loses Apple as its customer then, as per Raymond James and Associates estimations, it would cut company’s revenue by 7.5 percent.