Qualcomm announced on Thursday that it had posted a 1.34 billion euro ($1.52 billion) security bond, moving forward with a German ban on the iPhone 7 and 8.
According to Reuters, the bond was mandated by a Munich court, which ruled late last month that the iPhones infringed on Qualcomm patents related to power saving. Apple was instructed to cease sales and imports of affected hardware, as well as recall units from third-party vendors. The iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR are still available in Germany for the time being.
Once the bond is posted, the prohibition can go into effect. Apple has already begun the appeals process for the December ruling.
Qualcomm has accused Apple supplier Qorvo of infringing on U.S. Patent No. 8,698,558 for a “Low-voltage power-efficient envelope tracker.”
A Chinese court has issued a preliminary injunction against older iPhones for infringing on two software patents. Apple, in response to the sales ban, announced its intention to release a software update that it believed would address the “minor functionality of the two patents at issue in the case,” later releasing iOS 12.1.2. Qualcomm has contested the effectiveness of this fix.
Apple previously released a statement regarding the German matter, in which it called Qualcomm’s actions “a desperate attempt to distract from the real issues between our companies” and claimed Qualcomm charges “exorbitant fees for work they didn’t do.” It also drew attention to government investigations into Qualcomm’s business practices, which required chip buyers to accept licensing agreements in the past.
Since at least January 2017, when Apple filed a $1 billion lawsuit against Qualcomm alleging that Qualcomm was withholding royalty rebates in retaliation for cooperating with antitrust investigators, the two companies have been at odds. Since then, legal conflicts have escalated, and Qualcomm has pursued a U.S. iPhone ban.
