Apple and Qualcomm's Massive Patent Trial Officially Kicks Off, here's what we know

After two years of Apple suing Qualcomm for $1 billion in unpaid royalties and incompetent licenses in patents, the two companies are in a court trial in San Diego today. The case starts with the jury selection.

Firstly, Apple’s manufacturers Foxconn, Pegatron, Wistron and Compal alleged that they overpaid Qualcomm for $9 billion. Apple argued that Qualcomm should repay $3.1 billion for patents. However, Qualcomm defended that Foxconn, Pegatron, Wistron and Compal should owe over 7.5 billion dollars in unpaid royalties. The penalties total up to a minimum of $15 billion towards Apple.

Secondly, in a statement from Qualcomm in April 2017, it says that:

Apple is the world's most profitable seller of cellular devices. But as a late-comer to the cellular industry, Apple contributed virtually nothing to the development of core cellular technology. Instead, Apple's products rely heavily on the cellular inventions of Qualcomm and others. Apple's iPhones and other products enjoy enormous commercial success, but without lightning-fast cellular connectivity—enabled in large part by Qualcomm's inventions—Apple's iPhones would lose much of their consumer appeal.

This is significant because Qualcomm thinks that Apple is not contributing enough for revolutionized cellular technology in the iPhone. They also mentioned that Apple is using Qualcomm for mostly their iPhone cellular chips, not on the behalf of their other products. The iPhone hasn’t got any faster cellular connectivity, which is one of the reasons why Qualcomm is mentioning Apple inadequately using their cellular chips.

Lastly, we also heard that Apple already won a preliminary judgment that requires Qualcomm to pay almost $1 billion in withheld revenue in the previous month. Qualcomm has a history of facing scrutiny from various countries, including the United States as well.

Therefore, both of these companies had legal rivalries in recent years. Apple has forfeited the use of Qualcomm cellular chips in their iPhones since 2018 with the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and the iPhone XR. Apple should’ve used the Qualcomm chips for 5G and cellular improvements in these newest iPhones, but due to the incompetence of adding that capability, it made Qualcomm file many lawsuits against them.