US: Qualcomm wants Apple manufacturers to pay up

In a court filing yesterday, Qualcomm asked for a preliminary injunction against four of Apple’s suppliers — Foxconn, Pegatron, Wistron, and Compal — all of began suing for breach of contract earlier this month. Qualcomm said in April that Apple had instructed those companies not to pay royalties for devices they made using Qualcomm technology. It later said that would lead to a loss of $500 million in revenue this quarter alone because of the missing payments.

Qualcomm and Apple are locked in a worldwide legal dispute over patents and payments, with Qualcomm largely stuck playing defense. Apple has said that Qualcomm has been charging excessively high patent licensing fees for years, using its position as the dominant supplier of smartphone modems as leverage.

In its new filing, Qualcomm says that Apple is trying to force a settlement by throwing its weight around. “Apple could litigate against Qualcomm indefinitely; it has virtually unlimited resources (more than $256 billion in cash reserves) and already has filed multiple cases against Qualcomm not just in this court, but around the world. And when those cases end, Apple can file more cases,” the company writes in a new filing.

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