Qualcomm seeks to ban iPhone X sales in the US with new lawsuit

Hot on the heels of Apple announcing its lawsuit against Qualcomm in an ever-growing legal battle, the Snapdragon chip maker has filed its own legal complaint that could see iPhone X sales banned in the United States.

Qualcomm levied a complaint to the US International Trade Commission (ITC) noting that several of Apple’s smartphones – ranging from the iPhone 7 to iPhone X – violate five of its patent. 

That’s far fewer than the 16 patent violations Qualcomm raised against Apple in its November 29 lawsuit, but they still cover a gamut of technologies including radio-frequency transceivers, depth-based imagery, an energy saving memory array and even on-off power phases.

Depending on the ITC decision to act on Qualcomm’s complaint, imports, and thus sales, of the iPhone X and other Apple products could be banned in the US. If Qualcomm were to win, a victory might cause the company to take further action against Apple with other agencies around the world – which we have already seen a similar call for iPhone X bans in China.

That said, this isn’t the first time Qualcomm has raised an ITC complaint against Apple. Earlier this August, the Snapdragon creator raised issue with six patent violations that led to an investigation, but nothing else thus far.

With this in mind it could take weeks before an investigation begins and months for action on the complaint.

Via Engadget

Kevin Lee

Kevin Lee was a former computing reporter at TechRadar. Kevin is now the SEO Updates Editor at IGN based in New York. He handles all of the best of tech buying guides while also dipping his hand in the entertainment and games evergreen content. Kevin has over eight years of experience in the tech and games publications with previous bylines at Polygon, PC World, and more. Outside of work, Kevin is major movie buff of cult and bad films. He also regularly plays flight & space sim and racing games. IRL he's a fan of archery, axe throwing, and board games.