Apple Files 2 Suits VS Qualcomm In Beijing, Qualcomm Responds

This afternoon the folks at Qualcomm have issued a statement on their current state of legal affairs with Apple in China. They suggest that they have not seen the legal complaints issued by Apple, regardless of the Beijing court's press release. Apple's statement on the situation says that they have had disagreements with Qualcomm about royalty costs for technology licenses for many years, and have just recently found it necessary to seek assistance from the courts.

Qualcomm said this afternoon that they've seen the Beijing court's press release, but no official complaint from Apple. In the press release, as Qualcomm says, two mentions of complaints are made. One complaint is for a violation of China's Anti-Monopoly Law. The other complaint "requests a determination of the terms of a patent license between Qualcomm and Apple for Qualcomm's cellular standard essentials patents."

"These filings by Apple's Chinese subsidiary are just part of Apple's efforts to find ways to pay less for Qualcomm's technology. Apple was offered terms consistent with terms accepted by more than one hundred other Chinese companies and refused to even consider them. These terms were consistent with our NDRC Rectification plan," said Don Rosenberg, executive vice president and general counsel of Qualcomm.

"Qualcomm is prepared to defend its business model anywhere in the world. We are proud of our history of contributing our inventions to the development and success of the mobile communications ecosystem."

NOTE: As of publication time, Beijing Intellectual Property Court has not responded to SlashGear about this alleged set of court cases. The BJIPC has not yet published any such documents to the web. We'll be staying on the lookout for said documents.

Back on the 20th of January, Apple first made statement regarding this court case. Qualcomm replied that "Despite an appeal from members of Congress to refrain from 'midnight litigation' with novel and untested legal theories that could damage competition in the U.S., the FTC accelerated the investigation of Qualcomm and directed the filing of the complaint just days before the change of the Administration though only three of five FTC commissioners are in place."

UPDATE: Reuters suggests they've seen the same statement Qualcomm has from Beijing's Intellectual Property Court. In this statement, they suggest, Apple has filed two lawsuits against Qualcomm, seeking 1 billion yuan ($145.32 million) in total damages.