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Court says Qualcomm must play ball and license tech to competitors
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled on Tuesday that chip manufacturer Qualcomm must license some of its technology to its competitors.
This is the preliminary ruling in an antitrust lawsuits by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission against Qualcomm from early 2017 – the lawsuit is scheduled to go to trial next year, according to a Reuters report.
In the ruling, Judge Lucy Koh said that the company must license some of its patents involved in making modem chips to its competitors. Last month Qualcomm had, together with the FTC, asked Koh to delay the ruling for up to 30 days while they continued their settlement discussions. That request was denied.
Qualcomm has been fighting lawsuits for quite some time now, defending its business model against companies such as Apple and Huawei – not to mention its dealings with regulatory challenges to its practices around the world, the report continues.
The issue which is being discussed here is if the company’s licensing practices, coupled with its chip business, constitutes anticompetitive behaviour.