Apple settles landmark $27bn legal battle with Qualcomm

Tech giant Apple has ended a bitter two-year battle with former supplier Qualcomm, settling a patent dispute in California late last night.

Qualcomm won a six-year patent licence deal and supply agreement with Apple as part of the settlement, as well as an undisclosed sum from the iPhone creator.

Apple had previously been seeking $27bn (£20bn) in damages from the chipmaker, which it accused of using illegal anti-competitive practices to maintain a monopoly on smartphone modem chips.

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Apple began using Intel chips in some iPhones in 2016, and had phased out all Qualcomm chips last year in a challenge to the firm's “scheme of relentless extortion”.

Qualcomm argued its five per cent licence fees – known to some in the industry as the Qualcomm Tax – for the modem patents did not create market dominance. Its shares surged 23 per cent last night, while Apple rose marginally.

Last year, Qualcomm obtained a ban on Apple selling some iPhone models in China and Germany, which Apple was later able to overturn.

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A judge had ruled Apple would not be able to sell some iPhone models in Germany that contained an Intel chip from a supplier called Qorvo, which violated one of Qualcomm's patents around so-called envelope tracking.

The feature helps iPhones to save battery power while sending and receiving wireless signals.

Apple chief Tim Cook previously said that settlement talks had ended in September, which Qualcomm called “misleading”. He was responding to comments made by boss Steve Mollenkopf in November, in which he said the two firms were “on the doorstep of finding a resolution”.