The Top 10 Biggest Trademark Battles of 2019

The Top 10 Biggest Trademark Battles of 2019

  1. Apple Vs Qualcomm

Like an arena filled with fans eager to be entertained, this year Apple and Qualcomm were due a lively billion-dollar face-off in court. It’s not quite a trademark battle as it is a legal dispute over ‘fair markets’ and general IP. It goes back to a legal dispute that began in 2017 over the cost of the processors that Apple’s devices use to connect to mobile networks.

Apple had been arguing that Qualcomm charges too much for the necessary parts and as a result controls the market segment over those parts, thus stifling innovation. Qualcomm disagreed, claiming it sells the parts at a fair price, and that as it developed the tech, it should be rewarded appropriately. Foxconn and Pegatron, the companies that assemble phones for Apple, have backed the i-tech giant.

Most of Qualcomm’s annual revenue comes from the sale and licensing of the tech in question; modem chips that allow phones to reach mobile networks. It alleges Apple is now attempting to pay less for the products in needs by using the law to put Qualcomm at a disadvantage.

The US trial was scheduled for a 5-week term, though there have been identical disputes between the firms in China, the UK and Germany too, some of which resulted in court injunctions against the selling of Apple phones with Qualcomm modems in them. If resolved in court this case would have immediately set precedents for the tech world and market competition case law. Companies like Samsung and Nokia would have also challenged the licensing fees and steep prices of the chips they needed.

The case never went to trial after all, as in April this year, the two parties settled out of court. According to the statement form Apple, all companies, including sub-contracted parties, “have reached a global patent license agreement and a chipset supply agreement.” In the interest of innovation, Apple and Qualcomm reached a 6-year license agreement over the parts, and Apple agreed to pay an undisclosed sum to Qualcomm.

This is the general gist of the dispute anyway, but there was a lot more complexity to it.

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