Qualcomm was granted a second injunction against Apple Thursday, banning it from selling some iPhone models in Germany that use chips from Intel and parts from another supplier, Qorvo. There was no clear reaction to the news in Apple's stock price.
This is the second major win for Qualcomm against Apple after a Chinese court granted an injunction against Apple for an alleged patent violation on Dec. 10.
The ruling will not go into immediate effect if Apple appeals, judge Matthias Zigann told the court. The German case is Qualcomm's third major effort to secure a ban on Apple's lucrative iPhones over patent infringement allegations after similar court efforts in the United States and in China.
In Germany, Qualcomm is seeking a ban on some iPhones with chips from Intel. The judge ruled that phones that contain a combination of chips from Intel and Apple supplier Qorvo violated one of Qualcomm's patents around so-called envelope tracking, a feature that helps mobile phones save battery power while sending and receiving wireless signals.
In a statement, Qorvo's Chief Intellectual Property Counsel Mike Baker said, "We believe our envelope tracking chip does not infringe the patent in suit, and the court would have come to a different conclusion if it had considered all the evidence. We're disappointed that the inventor and designer of our chip, who attended the hearing, wasn't given the opportunity to testify or present other evidence that disproves Qualcomm's claim of infringement. The International Trade Commission has already determined that our envelope tracker chip does not infringe the U.S. counterpart to the patent at issue in this case. We currently do not expect that this decision will have any impact on our business with Apple."
Apple and Intel were not immediately available to comment. A Qualcomm spokesperson did not immediately have a statement.
Qualcomm sued Apple in the regional court in Munich in July last year, seeking an injunction to halt some iPhone sales in Germany as well as monetary damages. The case is part of a broader court conflict between the two, in which Apple has alleged that Qualcomm engaged in anticompetitive business practices to protect a monopoly on its modem chips, which help mobile phones connect to wireless data networks. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has also sued Qualcomm over its business practices in a case set to go to trial in California next month.
Apple had tried to preempt a ban based on a different feature by altering its software in Germany, the Financial Times reported Wednesday.
-Reuters contributed to this report.
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