Qualcomm suggests legal battle with Apple will end soon despite evidence to the contrary

In October, Qualcomm claimed that Apple owed a staggering $7 billion in royalties. Despite this, reports suggested the chipmaker offered a settlement which was inevitably rejected by the iPhone manufacturer. Apple doesn’t seem to be backing down in the dispute, however Qualcomm president Cristiano Amon states that this battle is coming to an end, “one way or another.”

Tension between Apple and Qualcomm heated intensely at the beginning of 2017, with the former taking the chipmaker to court for helping itself to a slice of its iPhone pie. It deemed the contractual requirement illegal, despite being a regular practice in the patent industry. Qualcomm fired back last month, claiming that Apple owed unpaid royalties, but now it looks like the semiconductor firm is wanting to stop legal proceedings before they reach trial.

“We feel like we are probably near the end of this game — we have a lot of legal milestones approaching. We see 2019 as having events that will drive resolution one way or another,” Amon optimistically said in an interview with Yahoo Finance. This contrasts Apple’s lawyers, which claim that both parties will need to attend a trial on April 15^th, 2019.

Amon’s lips were sealed tight on exactly how Qualcomm was planning to bring things to a conclusion, but the comment strongly suggests something will inevitably happen in the near future. This could simply be an echo of Qualcomm’s hopeful statement last month, after CEO Steve Mollenkopf expressed a desire for two companies to once again strike a partnership when things settle.

KitGuru Says: Qualcomm really needs an ace up its sleeve if it plans to win Apple over before going to court. Since legal proceedings can take years, it’s easy to see why the semiconductor specialists want to put an end to things now.

Become a Patron!