Qualcomm may be considering nuclear option in battle with Apple

This is war.

Qualcomm, which has been in a heated battle with technology partner Apple over patent royalty payments, may be pursuing the nuclear option, according to a Bloomberg report, possibly asking the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) to block iPhone imports.

At the root of the dispute between Apple and Qualcomm are cellular communication technology patents that Apple and others license from Qualcomm for a hefty fee.

Tension between Qualcomm and partners has been brewing for months and finally bubbled over in January when the Federal Trade Commission accused Qualcomm of anti-trust practices. Essentially the deals it was making with companies like Apple were considered unfair. Part of the issue was that Qualcomm was charging Apple a licensing fee for every single iPhone, whether or not every device used Qualcomm's cellular technologies. As of the iPhone 7, Apple started mixing in Intel baseband processors to the iPhone mix. Read more...