Qualcomm accused Apple of underhanded business practices

Qualcomm and Apple have been embroiled for some time in litigation around Apple’s business practices, and now Qualcomm has directly accused Apple of passing on their trade secrets to their preferred modem supplier, Intel.

The company has applied to amend an existing lawsuit against Apple in which Qualcomm already complained that Apple refused to allow Qualcomm to audit their use of Qualcomm’s source code software and tools to make sure they are used as per Qualcomm’s customer agreements.

Now the company has said as part of their discovery procedure for that lawsuit they discovered evidence which suggests Apple had passed on their tools and source code to Intel, to help the company catch up to Qualcomm.

The evidence reportedly includes not just email correspondence, but Apple’s source code development history and the code used in Intel-based phones.

“Unlawful use of Qualcomm’s valuable trade secrets to try to help a competitor catch up irreparably harms us and must not be allowed to continue,” said Donald Rosenberg,  Qualcomm’s general counsel.

Apple had earlier used a combination of Qualcomm and Intel LTE modems, with Qualcomm’s modems showing a clear performance lead over handsets with Intel’s chipset. This year Apple is only using Intel’s modems, who appears to have caught up with Qualcomm’s speeds.

Apple has declined to comment, and the case is set to be heard in April 2019.

Via CNBC