Η Qualcomm secured another court victory over Apple, this time in Germany, as a court in the large European country ruled that some iPhone models, with Intel modems, infringe a patent of the chips company.
The court ruled that these iPhones could no longer be sold in Germany, but the ban would not take effect if Apple filed an appeal. Under current law, however, Apple is required to remove the iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 from store shelves.
In fact, in a relevant official statement, Apple stressed that it will stop selling the iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 models in Germany, through its retail stores, while the appeal process continues. The iPhone XS and iPhone XR are not affected and older iPhone models will still be sold to resellers and third-party carriers.
What happened earlier…
Earlier, Apple had tried to "slip" as painlessly as possible from the legal challenge posed by Qualcomm in Germany, launching a new, small change in iOS, which affects only local iPhone users.
Apple's change was the result of numerous lawsuits filed by Qualcomm against Apple worldwide over its use of proprietary technology. In fact, as is well known, a Chinese court has already ruled in favor of Qualcomm, ordering the cessation of sales of certain iPhone models in the Chinese market. The small software differentiation was implemented earlier this year in the German version of iOS and is changing the way users browse their contact books using the Spotlight feature. This is not a shaky change and is described by the Financial Times as "So small that it went largely unnoticed by users."
Qualcomm's case in Germany concerns multiple patents, including one related to power management. And the difficulty for Apple to find a solution to such an issue is much greater, as it concerns the iPhone hardware.
It is recalled that the big lawsuit of Apple with Qualcomm is going to start in the United States in April 2019, with the second one claiming that they owe them 7 billion dollars in rights. He also claims that Apple has stolen its trade secrets and passed them on to Intel.
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