On December 20, 2018, the Munich Regional Court issued a ruling in favor of semiconductor manufacturer Qualcomm against Apple. According to this ruling, Apple is no longer allowed to sell or market certain iPhone models in this country.
The reason for this is the violation of a patent whose technology optimizes the power consumption of the mobile phone chip. According to Qualcomm, Apple cannot change this with an iOS update. The ruling is not yet final, but is provisionally enforceable (the prerequisite is the payment of a security deposit) - Apple has already announced that it intends to appeal. After Qualcomm deposited the security deposit of over 1.34 billion euros in securities, the sales ban came into force on January 3, 2019. Accordingly, Apple is no longer allowed to sell or market the iPhone 7, iPhone 7+, iPhone 8, iPhone 8+ and iPhone X models in this country.
press release misleading
Apple has removed the affected iPhone models from its 15 stores in Germany and has therefore temporarily stopped selling them. Apple's press release at the time commented on the disappointment of the ruling and pointed out that all affected devices were available from retailers and contractual partners (Gravis & Co.).
Qualcomm has obtained an injunction against this statement. According to the injunction, the passage in the press release is misleading - this was the ruling of the Munich Regional Court, according to information from the dpa. According to the ruling, Apple is no longer allowed to make such statements in the future. The iGroup has not yet commented on the report. The Munich Regional Court also announced that it does not wish to release any further details on the ongoing proceedings for the time being.
Why did Qualcomm have to make a security deposit?
Such a security deposit is required to ensure that Apple can receive compensation payments that could be incurred if Qualcomm ultimately loses the case in a higher court.
