Chennai: Apple will be pulling its older models that are on sale in its stores in Germany after US chipmaker Qualcomm got the ruling from the District Court of Munich in its favour in a patent dispute case.
“The ruling effectively outlaws the offering and placing on the market of the finished product in Germany, including the sale. The iPhones 7, 7 plus, 8, 8 plus and X are affected,” said the regional court in Munich in its statement.
The court ruled that Apple’s devices were infringing on Qualcomm’s intellectual property related to power savings in smartphones.
At the heart of the dispute in the German case are chips made by one of Apple’s suppliers used in iPhones, with both parties at loggerheads on how the chips actually function, said the court.
The ruling marks the latest salvo in the increasingly escalating battle between Qualcomm and Apple, started almost two years ago when Apple first accused Qualcomm of gouging prices for its modem chips.
Qualcomm in turn launched a variety of lawsuits against Apple accusing it of violating its IP, which has led to the current fractious situation.
The news comes after Qualcomm won a similar injunction in China on 10 December that would have banned sales of older models, although Apple has already updated iOS for Chinese users with new animations to allow sales to continue.
Given that Apple can appeal the initial ruling, the court said the injunction banning sales of affected iPhones can only be imposed immediately if Qualcomm laid down a security deposit amounting to 668.4 million euros ($765 million).
The court said it had sought the large sum as that could be the amount awarded to Apple in terms of revenue losses if the iPhone maker manages to get the Munich ruling overturned by a higher court.
Apple is already said to be working to appeal the ruling, but the company has stated that as part of that process, it will be suspending sales of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 in the 15 Apple stores in Germany.
Newer devices, like the iPhone XS and XR, are unaffected by the ruling, and the iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 will still be available from third-party sellers and carriers as well.
Apple had apparently tried to issue a similar sort of software update earlier in the year to head off a potential issue in Germany (this time, related to how users can search contacts), but the latest ruling for power saving may be harder to solve, given that it’s seemingly a hardware problem.
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