User talk:Jaybuddhdev1010

Apple and Qualcomm
Using somebody else’s patent software without their permission or their approval is a big crime. It can drop big company’s profit and completely break down small companies. Company spent billions of dollars for innovation & taking their patent software without their permission is simply stealing. It is not morally right nor humanly ethical. But it is still happening every single day in Silicon Valley. The biggest one happened recently when Qualcomm accused Apple for stealing their patents software without their permission. As we know, for big companies, the drama doesn’t stop after the accusation, later come the yearlong battle. In this case also, the consequences followed after this incident. But the question remains, where is the morality in tech world? With billions of dollar funding, can’t they spend some to make sure they don’t do something which is not harm their morality. Today they are taking somebody else’s software, but can they guarantee that their one won’t get stolen in the near future.

The most interested aspect of this giant battle is that, after the verdict, the case didn’t stop and it is still going on. It all started when, Apple also sued Qualcomm for 1 billion dollars saying they are charging too much. According to Apple CEO Tim Cook, “You should take from our filing that we viewed it as, we didn’t see another way forward insisting on charging royalties for technologies that they had nothing to do with.” This all happened because Qualcomm asked a court to force Apple’s iPhone and iPad manufacturers to pay up, since they’ve been withholding royalty payments for weeks under Apple’s instructions. According to Qualcomm, Apple told his four suppliers not to give any royalty fee to Qualcomm and as a result they would lose around 500 million dollars in a quarter. As a reply, Apple CEO Tim Cook says that Qualcomm is “trying to charge Apple a percentage of the total iPhone value” when what it provides is “one small part of what an iPhone is.” When this happened, Qualcomm started to ask government not to allow Apple to sell their product in US. After all these, Apple still using Qualcomm patents like LTE services and many other services. In their defense, they are just telling that Qualcomm is asking so much money. And without any surprise, Apple allies like Foxconn, Compal Electronics etc. started supporting Apple and started telling that Qualcomm is charging too much.

Although Apple attacked for Qualcomm’s overcharged price, they are not the only one who did this against Qualcomm. Qualcomm has been hit with a nearly $774 million fine by Taiwan’s Fair-Trade Commission. China and South Korea has also fined Qualcomm before. Most country is fed up with Qualcomm’s overcharging and using their patents as a shield to income more money. But it didn’t affected Qualcomm. After this happened, Qualcomm asked Chinese government to also ban iPhone in their country. According to them, Apple is in violation in three patents. As a reply, Apple said these claims are simply “Meritless”. An Apple spokesperson said, “Regulators around the world have found Qualcomm guilty of abusing their position for years. This claim is meritless and, like their other courtroom maneuvers, we believe this latest legal effort will fail.” Although this is not the first time, they are trying to ban iPhone from China. They also tried to block iPhone before in China. Although their previous attempt remained unsuccessful.

After this incident, the situation got messier. Qualcomm this time accused Apple for sharing their chip code with Intel, their biggest competitor. As a fight back, this time Apple hit back and accused Qualcomm for stealing their patent. According to Apple, Qualcomm stole their battery savings patent and used it to Snapdragon 800 & 820. Although they are quite old chip from Qualcomm, it’s just a fight back from Apple to bring down Qualcomm. But it didn’t stopped Qualcomm in any way as their tit for tat battle continues. They again hit back saying Apple violating 16 patents now in their iPhone 7,8 & X model. Not only that, Qualcomm also highlighted that Apple UI has many features from WebOS from Palm. As Qualcomm now own Palm, Apple can’t use it without their permission. To hit back, Apple send a lawsuit and, in that lawsuit, Apple said Qualcomm’s behavior was “a common patent troll.”

At the heart of the issue lies the argument that Qualcomm is monopolizing the chip manufacturing industry. Some of the FTC claims as to why they believe that Qualcomm are engaging in monopolistic practices are:


 * Qualcomm won’t sell baseband processors to phone makers unless they agree to “disproportionately high” patent royalties, a policy referred to as “no license – no chips”.
 * Qualcomm unfairly refuses to license essential patents to other chipmakers, which prevents competitors from challenging its dominance.
 * Qualcomm offered Apple lower patent royalties if the iPhone exclusively used Qualcomm chips, locking competitors like intel out of incredibly popular phone. This allegedly stopped Apple from offering the iPhone on Sprint’s WiMAX network --- which offered speeds faster than other networks’ 3G systems but was supported by Intel.

On the other hand, there awaits more bad news for Apple. This time it’s from Germany. In German, Apple had to stopped selling their phone because of Qualcomm partial wins. They can’t sell their phone with Intel chipset in Germany. When asked about, in a statement, the company said that “to ensure all iPhone models can again be available to customers in Germany, we have no choice but to stop using Intel chips and ship our phones with Qualcomm chips in Germany.” Not only that, Qualcomm decline to sell their chip to Apple. As of October 2018, Qualcomm said that Apple owes it $7 billion in royalty payments & they won’t sell anything until it meets.

After long two years of messy battle, there might be a little bit light on Qualcomm’s future. Apple might get some ban on US market. Not only that, Qualcomm won a paltry $31 million for that verdict or $1.41 per infringing iPhone. It might not seem that much for a company which worth nearly $1 trillion, but it surely affected Apple. This is just a small victory for Qualcomm as there’s verdict will be given on 15 April this year.

Tech world is a very messy place right now. One company throwing another one under the bus just to gain a little bit profit or make something. In these processes, they are forgetting the morality in between. They don’t care about ethics or anything. As a result, they are losing millions or sometime billions. Unless they fixed their act, this will keep happening. This is the best time to fix their act and do the right thing so that there could be more innovation and people don’t have to live in fear that their software might get stolen or their brilliant idea will not get valued.

Source:
 * https://www.cnet.com/news/apple-qualcomm-patent-infringement-verdict/
 * https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/26/18282700/apple-vs-qualcomm-patent-infringement-iphone-import-ban
 * https://www.digitaltrends.com/business/apple-vs-qualcomm-news/