Late last week, Qualcomm filed a motion in the federal court in San Jose for compelling Intel to provide technical documents and codes of its chips used in iPhones.
This is one of Qualcomm’s progressions in its patent legal battle with Apple. Qualcomm said that Intel reneged on the promise to provide the documents, but the former still want those out of the latter.
After several meet-and-confers and exchanges of written correspondence, on May 18, Intel appeared willing to cooperate, offering a ‘limited supplemental production of technical materials relating to relevant components designed for 2018 iPhone models’ in exchange for Qualcomm’s agreement that the limited production would satisfy certain requests in the document subpoena. – excerpt from the motion
The United States International Trade Commission is considering whether iPhones with Intel chips should be banned from the nation’s market for infringing a patent of Qualcomm. This is, in fact, one major point of the entire case.
Now, Qualcomm said that it agreed upon limiting the scope of providing technical documents of components used for iPhones. This was one move that expresses how keen the company is for the documents, as it boosted the process of providence.
Intel went back on its word. Intel failed to produce the material and still has not produced the material two months later.
As a refresher, the lawsuit process started last year with Apple filing against Qualcomm for about $1 billion alleging the chipmaker on unfair licensing terms for its technological products. Apple wanted to pay less to Qualcomm for using its chips in iPhones.
Qualcomm countered this by suing Apple for patent infringement as well as asking to ban iPhone sales. The chipmaker still holds its ground on the fact that its cellular technologies are evidently necessary for the modern smartphones including the iPhones.
Back to the present development of the case, Qualcomm stated that Intel refused to comply with a subpoena for deposition testimony on its current generation of RF components. Intel responded to Qualcomm by saying that complying would be an extra burden as more than one deposition will be needed, and some witnesses reside away from the US. Qualcomm did want to use video conferencing!
Intel declined to comment on present scenarios.
