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Qualcomm has announced that it has won an important victory in the patent battle against Apple. A Chinese court has ruled that various iPhone models violate several of Qualcomm’s patents, and that they may therefore no longer be sold in the country. That’s what Ars Technica reports. Apple claims to have appealed.

The ruling was said to have been made on 30 November, but was only published now. Apple states that the ban is not yet in force and that it only applies to older versions of iOS and not to iOS 12. It also only concerns older iPhones, including iPhone 8 and iPhone X. The latest models presented this year are not covered by the ban.

Qualcomm’s going against that. “The provisional orders are already effective,” says Don Rosenberg, Qualcomm’s attorney. “If Apple ignores the ban, Qualcomm asks the Chinese court to force the company to comply, said Rosenberg.

Lawsuit

The two companies have been fighting for patents in recent years. It began because Apple found that Qualcomm was charging too high a royalty for its parts in the iPhones. The company also claimed to have developed its own applications, as a result of which the chip manufacturer is no longer required. However, Qualcomm says that Apple is still using the technology and that they are infringing their patents.

The lawsuit in China was brought by Qualcomm at the end of 2017. The case revolved around the phones and software that were sold at the time: iOS 11 and the iPhone models from 6S to X. The newer models and iOS 12 were not yet on the market at the time and were therefore not included in the court case. The question now is whether Qualcomm can convince the Chinese court to extend the ban to the new hardware and software.

The case specifically concerns patents that allow users to change the size and appearance of photos, and to manage applications on a touch screen while viewing, navigating and closing applications on their phones. This can make it difficult to redesign Apple’s software to prevent patent infringement. They sound rather broad.

This news article was automatically translated from Dutch to give Techzine.eu a head start. All news articles after September 1, 2019 are written in native English and NOT translated. All our background stories are written in native English as well. For more information read our launch article.