Qualcomm takes aim at Apple’s flagship iPhone X, to seek partial ban in U. S.

Qualcomm has fired off another round of patent infringement claims against Apple – this time aiming to block U.S. imports of certain flagship iPhone 8 and iPhone X smartphones.

The San Diego company filed three additional patent infringement lawsuits in U.S. District Court in San Diego late Wednesday. It also plans to submit a new complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission on Thursday.

This latest barrage of legal actions comes amid an increasing nasty battle between Qualcomm and Apple over patents – a war that doesn’t show any signs of ending soon.

The lawsuits allege Apple is infringing on 16 Qualcomm patents related to technologies that boost bandwidth in phones, save power and enhance photos from dual rear-facing cameras, among other things.

Some of the patents were issued between 2015 and 2017 – perhaps an attempt by Qualcomm to counter Apple’s contention that Qualcomm’s intellectual property is outdated and increasingly less important to what makes smartphones valuable.

The legal maneuvers come one day after Apple counter-sued Qualcomm, alleging it’s infringing on eight Apple patents on power-management techniques in smartphones.

Qualcomm General Counsel Don Rosenberg said the timing of Qualcomm’s lawsuits is coincidental to Apple’s countersuit.

“You can’t react that quickly to file lawsuits,” said Rosenberg. “We were in the process of filing three new district court cases in San Diego today, and one new ITC case in Washington, D.C. Those involve a group of 16 patents that are additional to the ones we have already sued them on, and five of those 16 are ones we are suing them on in the ITC seeking an exclusion order.”

In July, Qualcomm sued Apple for infringing on six patents – later dropping one – related mostly to technologies for saving power and extending battery life.

In addition, Qualcomm asked the ITC to ban the import of iPhone 7 models that infringed on its patents – but only those that used cellular chips from Intel and run on AT&T’s and T-Mobile’s networks.

The new ITC case will seek to block Apple’s new iPhone 8s and iPhone X models that use Intel chips – again on AT&T and T-Mobile. Sales of these latest flagships began in September.

Qualcomm supplies Apple with cellular modems for iPhone 7s, iPhone 8s and iPhone Xs on Verizon and Sprint, as well as older iPhones on all U.S. networks.

Qualcomm is not seeking to stop imports of iPhones that use its own semiconductors, which are technically capable of powering cellular connections in smartphones on any network — including AT&T and T-Mobile.

The reason, according to the company, is a limited ban has a better chance of actually being implemented.

As an administrative agency, the International Trade Commission’s sanctions can be vetoed by the president. In 2013, the Obama administration set aside an ITC ban on iPhones in Apple’s long-running patent fight with Samsung. The rationale was that a sweeping ban would harm the U.S. economy and consumers.

The ITC typically takes 12 to 16 months to investigate patent infringement and make a decision on whether to ban imports. Patent lawsuits in federal court can drag on considerably longer.

In addition to its war with Apple, Qualcomm is battling a potentially hostile, $103 billion takeover bid from rival chip maker Broadcom.

Qualcomm’s board rejected Broadcom’s $70 per share offer earlier this month. Next week is the deadline for Broadcom to submit an alternative slate of directors with the aim of pushing the deal through.

Qualcomm’s shares ended trading Thursday down 18 cents at $66.34 on the Nasdaq exchange.

mike.freeman@sduniontribune.com;

Twitter:@TechDiego

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