FTC asks court to dismiss Qualcomm's request to stop ongoing anti-competitive case

Once again, Qualcomm has been taken to court, accused of being anti-competitive and monopolistic. This time, it's Apple, Samsung, and the US Federal Trade Comission against the chipmaker. The three aren't exactly cool with how Qualcomm allegedly uses its humongous portfolio of standard essential patents – governing technology required to be doing business in a specific industry – to play the market for its benefit. Thus, the FTC argued that the court should not accept Qualcomm's request of dismissing the suit put against the company in January.

Moreover, Apple claims Qualcomm essentially forced an exclusive supply deal onto them and completely blocked out possible competitors. It's also unhappy with certain licensing issues and stopped paying royalties, to which Qualcomm responded by seeking to ban iPhones from being imported and sold in America.

Samsung doesn't like that Qualcomm won't license its standard essential patents to fellow chipmakers, including Sammy. This has kept Samsung and others' products from fairly competing with Qualcomm's Snapdragon chipsets and LTE modems. Indeed, a contract clause with Qualcomm is the precise reason why Sam stopped selling its excellent Exynos chips to third parties.

At the same time, all three companies are entangled in business relationships as their lawyers are duking it out in courts. Legal stuff matters, of course, but as they say on the barren planet of Arrakis, the spice must flow...

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source: CNET