Qualcomm’s effort against a sweeping antitrust ruling seems to have hit a snag. A US District Court Judge recently struck and dismissed the semiconductor maker’s effort to prevent it from being put into effect.
According to Reuters, US District Judge Lucy Koh struck off Qualcomm’s appeal to dismiss the antitrust ruling, stating that the company’s licensing practices had “strangled competition”. In one court session, Judge Koh also strike off several pieces of evidence that Qualcomm had reportedly tried to use in its case. Including several slides allegedly obtained from internal Apple documents.
Needless to say, Qualcomm wasn’t happy with Judge Koh’s decision; the company is a major provider and supplier of chipsets to many major smartphone makers, and is the owner to several patents. Should the antitrust ruling go into effect, the company would be forced to license said patents to rival chip makers. Qualcomm fears that this would diminish their patent royalties from several dollars per phone to mere pennies.
Fortunately, all is not lost for Qualcomm. Upon receiving the District Court dismissal, the brand had reportedly made an immediate move to ask the US Circuit Court of Appeals to stay the District Court’s ruling. However, the company also argued that due to the dismissal, it would have to change certain license agreement and even offer deals to rival chip makers. Deals, Reuters says, could end up working against it should its appeal to the Circuit Court of Appeals goes through.
(Source: Reuters)
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