iPhone 6s/7/8/X sales halted in China following Qualcomm ruling

[D13H4RD]

Well, this certainly has not gone well for Apple

 

A Chinese court has granted an order that bans the sale of the iPhone 6s to the X after allegedly finding that Apple had violated 2 of Qualcomm's patents in relation to the phone's UI, such as resizing photos and managing applications on the home screen

Quote

The preliminary order affects the iPhone 6S through the iPhone X sold with older versions of Apple’s iOS operating system. Qualcomm, the biggest supplier of chips for mobile phones, initially filed its case in China in late 2017.

 

The ruling came from the Fuzhou Intermediate People’s Court in China, the same court that earlier this year banned the import of some of memory chip maker Micron Technology Inc’s chips into China.

Yiqiang Li, a patent lawyer at Faegre Baker Daniels not involved in the case, said the type of injunction granted to Qualcomm by the Fuzhou court does not go into effect until there has been an appeal to a higher court.

The court found Apple violated two of Qualcomm’s software patents around resizing photographs and managing applications on a touch screen.

 

“Apple continues to benefit from our intellectual property while refusing to compensate us,” Don Rosenberg, general counsel of Qualcomm, said in a statement.

Apple shares were down 2 percent.

 

Because the patents concern software, Apple could make changes to its software to avoid the patents and still be able to sell its phones.

In a statement, Apple said that all iPhone models remain available for its customers in China. New iPhones use Apple’s latest version of its mobile operating system, iOS 12.

“Qualcomm’s effort to ban our products is another desperate move by a company whose illegal practices are under investigation by regulators around the world,” Apple said in its statement.

The ban does not affect the iPhone XS, XS Max and XR due to them being released after the court filing was sent.

 

Source: Reuters

[Max_Settings]

Yeah, India tired this too, went over real well for them.

[Sauron]

One one hand I think Qualcomm is full of it. Patenting generic design choices is stupid and patent law shouldn't allow it (though I don't know exactly how it works in China and I'm sure it's not the worst law they have there...).

 

On the other, I can't help but think Apple deserves this for doing the exact same thing. Clearly, this is a match made in Heaven...

[DrMacintosh]

It also doesn’t effect devices running iOS 12, as a result of this Apple is continuing to sell these “banned” devices in China. 

 

Your move, Qualcomm. 

[PlayStation 2]

Welcome to Patent Hell.

[DrMacintosh]

Just now, Sauron said:

On the other, I can't help but think Apple deserves this

The ban actually is currently not being enforced since it doesn’t apply to devices running iOS 12 and all those devices that were banned can be updated to iOS 12, and can therefore be sold legally. 

 

Kek

[D13H4RD]

1 minute ago, handymanshandle said:

Welcome to Patent Hell.

Pretty much.

[Sauron]

2 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

The ban actually is currently not being enforced since it doesn’t apply to devices running iOS 12 and all those devices that were banned can be updated to iOS 12, and can therefore be sold legally. 

 

Kek

Well, good for them I suppose. I'm sure they didn't enjoy going through the lawsuit though.

[DrMacintosh]

1 minute ago, VegetableStu said:

^HA!

It’s already the case. iOS 12 wasn’t around when the filing was made either, so any 6s-X can be sold as long as its on iOS 12. 

[DrMacintosh]

1 minute ago, Sauron said:

Well, good for them I suppose. I'm sure they didn't enjoy going through the lawsuit though.

Oh they aren’t done with it, I saw a statement that says Apple is going to try to essentially beat the sh*t out of Qualcomm in the courts for pulling something like this. 

 

They called it a desperate effort on Qualcomm’s part. 

[D13H4RD]

2 minutes ago, Sauron said:

Well, good for them I suppose. I'm sure they didn't enjoy going through the lawsuit though.

I don't think anyone likes going through a lawsuit concerned over trivial matters and patents

[GrockleTD]

1 minute ago, DrMacintosh said:

Oh they aren’t done with it, I saw a statement that says Apple is going to try to essentially beat the sh*t out of Qualcomm in the courts for pulling something like this. 

 

They called it a desperate effort on Qualcomm’s part. 

So essentially, they got out of getting sued for money, and now they are going to go and waste money in the courtroom?

[DrMacintosh]

1 minute ago, Grockle88 said:

So essentially, they got out of getting sued for money, and now they are going to go and waste money in the courtroom?

I doubt Apple sees sueing a company that is a substantial threat to them a waste. Apple has more capital than any Tech company, so as long as the opportunity cost isn’t too high, they’ll do it. 

[GrockleTD]

6 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

I doubt Apple sees sueing a company that is a substantial threat to them a waste. Apple has more capital than any Tech company, so as long as the opportunity cost isn’t too high, they’ll do it. 

I see.

[YaBoiWill]

Don't mind me asking, but can't apple just say all their devices being sold run IOS 12? 

Sure 12's been out a while, but when you buy an electronic product it normally needs an update, so how will apple know which phones have 12 and which are on older IOS's 

Seems kind of trivial to file a suit, didn't Qualcomm  use to make chips for them, or still do? 

[Commodus]

3 minutes ago, YaBoiWill said:

Don't mind me asking, but can't apple just say all their devices being sold run IOS 12? 

Sure 12's been out a while, but when you buy an electronic product it normally needs an update, so how will apple know which phones have 12 and which are on older IOS's 

Seems kind of trivial to file a suit, didn't Qualcomm  use to make chips for them, or still do? 

That's exactly it.  Qualcomm and the anti-Apple camp are lording it as a kind of victory, but it might not amount to much because you can't buy a new iPhone running iOS 11.

 

The perpetual problem with patent disputes is their sluggishness: even with early injunctions like this, the delays are long enough that the offending products may already be off the market by the time there's a ruling.  People complained about Apple threatening to ban Samsung phones, but the devices in question were obsolete by the time it prevailed in court.  It was more a symbolic win than a practical one.

[AlTech]

Wait wat...... China, a country which usually has complete disregard for patents of foreign companies, now cares about some obscure Qualcomm patent?

 

Lmfao 

 

[Sauron]

2 hours ago, DrMacintosh said:

Oh they aren’t done with it, I saw a statement that says Apple is going to try to essentially beat the sh*t out of Qualcomm in the courts for pulling something like this. 

 

They called it a desperate effort on Qualcomm’s part. 

 

2 hours ago, D13H4RD said:

I don't think anyone likes going through a lawsuit concerned over trivial matters and patents

They never seemed to care when they were on the other side of matters like this. To be clear, I don't think they're in the wrong here, but as I said I can't help but think they had it coming.

[AngryBeaver]

I wish more companies did this to apple to be honest. I mean how many times have they done this to other companies. I mean this is coming from a company that thinks they patented the idea of a Rectangular phone with rounded corners.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Sauron said:

One one hand I think Qualcomm is full of it. Patenting generic design choices is stupid and patent law shouldn't allow it (though I don't know exactly how it works in China and I'm sure it's not the worst law they have there...).

 

On the other, I can't help but think Apple deserves this for doing the exact same thing. Clearly, this is a match made in Heaven...

Apple may have deserved it for Cover Flow (which I loved a lot tbh) but they have been managing applications in the same way since 2008, when the App Store was introduced. Its also the same in iOS 12. I really don't get what Qualcomm is trying to do?

[Speed Weed]

[Curufinwe_wins]

13 minutes ago, RorzNZ said:

Apple may have deserved it for Cover Flow (which I loved a lot tbh) but they have been managing applications in the same way since 2008, when the App Store was introduced. Its also the same in iOS 12. I really don't get what Qualcomm is trying to do?

Get a modicum of action for clear patent violations on Apple's part...

 

Not even this one in particular, but a recent case in the US which was dramatically more technical and exacting than normal (about GPU architecture) sided that Apple was in clear violation and that normally such violation would be subject to a seller ban... but that the damage to the public would be too great, so nothing was done.

[Commodus]

53 minutes ago, AngryBeaver said:

I wish more companies did this to apple to be honest. I mean how many times have they done this to other companies. I mean this is coming from a company that thinks they patented the idea of a Rectangular phone with rounded corners.

Not very often, actually.  Also, so many people intentionally misinterpret Apple's case against Samsung... it was not saying it patented a phone with rounded corners, just its particular take.  And people also forget that the case against Samsung wasn't just about patents, it was about trade dress.  Apple had strong evidence that Samsung wasn't just designing something that happened to be similar -- it was specifically setting out to mimic the iPhone and iPad in hardware and software design.

 

Besides, no one should be cheerleading for Qualcomm.  It's a known antitrust abuser that deserves virtually every penalty it gets.

[Brooksie359]

On 12/10/2018 at 12:50 PM, Commodus said:

That's exactly it.  Qualcomm and the anti-Apple camp are lording it as a kind of victory, but it might not amount to much because you can't buy a new iPhone running iOS 11.

 

The perpetual problem with patent disputes is their sluggishness: even with early injunctions like this, the delays are long enough that the offending products may already be off the market by the time there's a ruling.  People complained about Apple threatening to ban Samsung phones, but the devices in question were obsolete by the time it prevailed in court.  It was more a symbolic win than a practical one.

I mean I don't know if this is the same case but I believe Samsung had to pay apple for a patent infringement so lawsuits like this can lead to money compensation rather than a simple ban of the product. Granted Samsung paid apple with dumptrucks full of pennies but that is a whole diffrent matter. 

[Commodus]

30 minutes ago, Brooksie359 said:

I mean I don't know if this is the same case but I believe Samsung had to pay apple for a patent infringement so lawsuits like this can lead to money compensation rather than a simple ban of the product. Granted Samsung paid apple with dumptrucks full of pennies but that is a whole diffrent matter. 

Samsung did have to pay Apple, but the final payment (not including the settlement) was hundreds of millions.  Both companies make several times that in profit each quarter.  I didn't talk about it simply because the damages wouldn't really register for either party in that fight.