iPhone Sales Banned In Germany, Qualcomm Succeeded Again

Apple is temporarily not selling some older iPhone models in Germany while fighting with Qualcomm in a patent-related lawsuit.

On December 20, the Munich District Court discovered that Apple infringed the power saving technology of Qualcomm and ordered the company to stop its iPhone sales in Germany.

In a statement, Apple said it had plans to appeal the order, first to delay the ruling then eventually turn it over. Nevertheless, Apple would pause the sale of its iPhone 7 and 8 at its 15 stores in the country.

On Thursday, after Qualcomm revealed the financial damage caused by Apple’s infringement, which is approximately $1.5 billion, the ban order turned official.

In December, the iPhone maker said that the iPhone XR and XS will still be available and all the others are still on sale at its carriers as well as third-party retailers located in 6,000 places across Germany.

However, on Thursday, Qualcomm said that the sale at third parties will be banned too. In a press release, the company added that Apple will have to recall all infringing iPhones currently sold at third-party retailers in the country. On the same day, Apple repeated its December statement but gave no comments about third-party sellers.

What happened earlier?

Back in December, Apple mentioned Qualcomm’s lawsuit as a desperate attempt to draw public attention from the real issue between them. Apple said that while Qualcomm was harming consumers and innovation with their business method, the company insisted on charging Apple a huge amount of money for something it didn’t do.

The patent that Qualcomm accused Apple of fringing involves a technology allowing users to take the most advantage of their phone batteries. It also lets smartphone users change and reformat the appearance and size of photos, monitor apps using a touchscreen when dismissing, navigating, or viewing apps.

Also in December, Qualcomm’s Don Rosenberg said the rulings from two respected courts are the evidence for their patent’s strength.

The argument over patent

The court in Germany made the decision on the ban after Qualcomm’s initial victory in December when a Chinese court demanded four of Apple’s subsidiaries in the country to stop importing as well as selling iPhones as a result of patent infringement.

It was reported that Apple has plans to replace the current software used in China with another one which does not infringe Qualcomm’s patents. However, it’s not equally simple to fix things in Germany as the patent infringement there involves hardware, which is hard to change.

Qualcomm is the largest chip maker in the world, which has developed the critical technology for connecting phones to cellular networks. The majority of its revenues is from licensing those inventions to phone makers, calculating the fee based on phone prices rather than components.

For example, since Qualcomm possesses the patents related to 4G and 3G phones, any phone producer that makes phones supporting connection to these networks has to pay a licensing fee to the company.

The fight between Apple and Qualcomm over patent-related issues started in January 2017 when the iPhone maker filed a lawsuit accusing Qualcomm of unfair licensing terms for its techs, demanding a $1 billion compensation. Apple wants to reduce the payment for using Qualcomm’s technology. In response, Qualcomm accused Apple of infringing its patents and demands a ban on Apple’s sales of several iPhones models. The company claims that Apple couldn’t make its iPhones work without its cellular technologies.

Later in April, Qualcomm expressed its hope to settle the lawsuit with Apple, lowering the fee it charges phone makers. In September, however, Qualcomallegeded Apple of stealing its trade secrets and confidential data, giving to Intel. And Apple said it does not settle with Qualcomm.