Apple and Qualcomm Reach Settlement, Will Drop Litigation

Posted by Evan Selleck on Apr 16, 2019 in Apple News, News, Qualcomm

Apple Australia

Apple and Qualcomm have been going at one another in the courts for a bit of time, but it looks like that will be coming to an end. Apple today announced that it has chosen to settle with Qualcomm, and that the two companies will stop litigation moving forward.

On Tuesday, just one day after Apple and Qualcomm’s court battle officially started, Apple announced that a settlement between the two companies has been reached. This means that the pair will stop any further litigation (as far as this particular matter is concerned). This particular court battle was over unpaid royalty rebates, and was taking place in court in San Diego, California.

“Qualcomm and Apple today announced an agreement to dismiss all litigation between the two companies worldwide. The settlement includes a payment from Apple to Qualcomm. The companies also have reached a six-year license agreement, effective as of April 1, 2019, including a two-year option to extend, and a multiyear chipset supply agreement.”

Apple initially sued Qualcomm back in 2017, for a total of $1 billion. Apple accused Qualcomm of anticompetitive practices, which stemmed from an FTC complaint against Qualcomm around the same time. The two companies have been going back-and-forth ever since, which even led Qualcomm to search for iPhone import bans in several countries, including Germany where it succeeded (for a time).

But, now that the court battle is settled, it stands to reason that the two companies should go back to working with one another again. That could mean that we could see Qualcomm 5G chips in iPhones in the future. Whether or not this means that Apple will hit its 2020 goal of its first 5G iPhone remains to be seen, though.

[via Apple]

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