Apple pursues another avenue in Qualcomm clash
Apple has waged another battle in its patent war with semiconductor company Qualcomm by filing a series of inter partes reviews (IPRs) at the US Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) this week.
Apple filed six IPR petitions this week in an attempt to invalidate four of Qualcomm’s patents.
On Monday, June 18, Apple took aim at US patent numbers 8,665,239 (which covers a method for identifying gestures on a touch sensitive display) and 7,693,002 (which is directed to decoding circuits for semiconductor memories) in two IPR petitions.
Two days later, Apple filed two IPR petitions, seeking review of patent number 8,497,928, relating to techniques to automatically focus a digital camera.
Yesterday, June 21, Apple filed another two petitions to invalidate patent number 9,203,940, called “Integrated personal digital assistant device”.
The four patents are part of infringement claims filed by Qualcomm in November last year at the US District Court for the Southern District of California.
The global tussle between the two companies began in January last year, when Apple sued Qualcomm for allegedly overcharging billions of dollars in patent royalties.
Qualcomm hit back at the accusations, claiming that Apple had “failed” to uphold its share of the bargain in a business co-operation and patent agreement between the companies and had rejected a fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory offer that it made in July 2016.
Since then, the battle has raged on, with Qualcomm turning to the US International Trade Commission in a bid to obtain a ban on iPhone imports.
Don Rosenberg, executive vice president and general counsel at Qualcomm, said: “These types of challenges are not uncommon in US patent litigation. We are confident in the validity of our patents, which Apple continues to infringe.”
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