A U.S. Federal judge in San Diego ruled for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:$AAPL)’s 11 foreign lawsuits against Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ:$QCOM) to proceed in the United States.
Apple is suing Qualcomm, a semiconductor company, over its licensing for chips, which provide mobile data connectivity to devices like the iPhone. Apple alleges that Qualcomm is charging unfair prices for the spec, and is engaging in anti-competitive practices. As a response, the semi conductor company has stated that it provided fair terms for the parts of technology where it is obligated to do so, and that it is within the company’s rights to determine pricing on patents that are not regulated by standard protocol.
Additionally, Qualcomm is seeking an “anti-suit” injunction against Apple, which would temporarily halt 11 separate lawsuits against the company and its subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, Japan, China, and Taiwan over many of the same pricing and practice issues as the U.S. Case.
San Diego judge Gonzalo Curiel ruled against such a case, to instead allow Apple to proceed with the foreign cases simultaneously to the U.S. cases.
Curiel states: “Apple’s declarations make evident that it has sought to challenge Qualcomm’s patent licensing practices and anti-competitive conduct territory by territory. While Qualcomm may object to this litigation strategy as duplicative, the Court will not conclude that Apple’s exercise of its rights under foreign laws is vexatious.”
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