Samsung drags Qualcomm into its on-going patent battle with Apple

The heavily trodden ground of patent infringement no-man's-land continues to reverberate with the growing ire of its combatants, as a new turn in the Samsung and Apple legal debacle brings Apple's relationship with Qualcomm into question.

The US District Court has received a formal request from the Korean manufacturer, asking that Apple be made to reveal the ins and outs of its contract with wireless chip maker Qualcomm.

Qualcomm is currently supplying chips for a number of Apple devices, including the iPhone 4S and the iPad 2.

Qualcomm has a cross licensing agreement with Samsung, so the bone of contention is whether this covers Apple in terms of Samsung patents or whether the way it's licensing Qualcomm's IP and manufacturing its devices means it's infringing Samsung's core patents. 

What's in a name?

Dylan Ruga, Samsung's defense lawyer, is particularly concerned with whether or not Apple is deemed a 'Qualcomm Customer,' a term 'defined in certain licensing agreements between Samsung and Qualcomm.'

"We need all agreements pursuant to which Qualcomm supplies or supplied 'Qualcomm MDM6610' chipsets to any person of entity and all documents that evidence, reflect or refer to the use by Apple of Qualcomm chipsets in iPhones or iPads…" reads an excerpt from Samsung's request.

"One of Apple's primary defenses is that it is entitled to use the chipsets at issue … Samsung seeks to streamline discovery in the litigation with Apple by requesting these highly-relevant documents only once, rather than issuing duplicative requests in each of the foreign litigations."

Global repercussions

Reports suggest that Samsung is preparing to submit any documents provided by Apple to courts in over eight countries, including Germany, Japan, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Australia, France and Korea.

"Apple must have purchased the chipsets at issue from Qualcomm and integrated them into the devices it sells to the public," said the counsel of record for Samsung Electronics from Steptoe & Johnson LLP.

"Thus, the chain of distribution from Qualcomm to Apple is a central issue in Samsung-Apple disputes"

Apple's reply was suitably succinct and dismissive, with Seoul-based spokesman Steve Park telling Korea Times that it was only concerned with protecting its IP from 'blatant copying.'

[source: Korea Times, 9to5Mac]