Qualcomm Is Using Court To Strike Out Mobile Chip Competition: Intel

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Intel is now accusing Qualcomm of taking the help of the court to weed out competition. The chip maker, which referred to itself as Qualcomm’s only remaining competitor in the market for cellular phone chips, accused Qualcomm of creating a monopoly for itself in cell phone modems using its “no license, no chips” policy.

Intel backs Apple in Qualcomm’s lawsuit

Intel made the allegations on Thursday in a statement to the U.S. International Trade Commission. The statement was furnished as part of the ongoing investigation in relation to Qualcomm’s lawsuit. The chip maker alleged that Apple has infringed upon six of its patents, notes CNET.

“Qualcomm did not initiate this investigation to stop the alleged infringement of its patent rights; rather, its complaint is a transparent effort to stave off lawful competition from Qualcomm’s only remaining rival,” the chip maker said.

Intel is not alone in making accusations against Qualcomm. Earlier this week, four other companies — Hon Hai Precision Industry, Wistron Corp, Compal Electronics Inc and Pegatron Corp — made a filing in the Southern District of California to counter Qualcomm’s lawsuit. Qualcomm wanted contractors to pay it the license fees that Apple asked them not to pay.

Qualcomm, on the other hand, defends its stance, stating that it is right both morally and legally.

In an earlier statement, Don Rosenberg, Qualcomm’s executive vice president and general counsel, said, “Qualcomm’s inventions are at the heart of every iPhone and extend well beyond modem technologies or cellular standards.”

The patents in the question are six of the most important technologies, and each of them is crucial for the iPhone, the executive said.

In another bit of not-so-good news for Qualcomm investors, its shares slipped more than 5% yesterday after the company’s third-quarter earnings announcement, although the results were above expectations. The discouraging EPS forecast was the main reason the stock took a dip. Another dent in the company’s earnings was the bleak revenue that it is expecting from its licensing business.

What’s worrying Intel?

Meanwhile, Intel is facing a rising threat from AMD’s new Ryzen series for personal computers. The company is also feeling the heat from Qualcomm’s presence in the notebook segment. Until now, Microsoft’s Windows was available only on Intel’s x 86 and Atom processors for PCs and tablets. Just after Intel scrapped its Atom Mobile processor in 2016, Microsoft entered into a deal with Qualcomm to bring Windows 10 into ARM processors.

Under the deal, all Windows 10 applications will run on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 ARM processor using an emulation. Last month, Intel announced that it would sue the company that makes the software emulator to run its x86 Win32 apps, such as Microsoft Office 2016, without its permission.

Intel has also reportedly scrapped its wearable team and also showed the exit door to many employees working on the technology. The chip maker instead is keen to explore augmented reality. The company, in fact, is just building on the efforts it started a few years ago with products such as the RealSense 3D camera in 2014.

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