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15 stores across Germany have been forced to remove some older iPhone 7 and 8 models form their shelves after a patent row with the chip maker. Munich courts have ruled the smartphone makers have breached two European patents involving their products.
Qualcomm, the chip makers, , based in San Diego has pursued a raft of similar cases over the years involving other jurisdictions. At the moment, the fifteen stores have been forced to take these off the shelf despite the iPhone 8 only being released last year. Apple, pending an appeal, said
“Qualcomm’s campaign is a desperate attempt to distract from the real issues between our companies.
“Their tactics, in the courts and in their everyday business, are harming innovation and harming consumers.”
The case from claimants Qualcomm Inc against defendants Apple Inc comes a couple of weeks after the claimants secured a court ban against some of the iPhone models in China. Apple responded by continuing to sell the mobiles in China but made particular changes to the operating system to custom itself for the Chinese market.
Reports state the ban in Germany may only have effected the sale of a few million devices out of the hundreds of millions of iPhone the tech giant Apple sell every year. nevertheless, it was still a win in a complex legal batle that will push Qualcomm forward in their favour when it comes to Apple taking them to court in the United States.
Apple claims that Qualcomm had a monopoly on modern chips and engaged in illegal behaviour in doing so. Qualcomm has suffered a series of setbacks fighting U.S antitrust regulators in the past too.
As a possible result of the battles taking place, Apple shares were down 2.3% at $157.12 whilst Qualcomm was only down 0.2% at $56.69.
