Qualcomm Wields Palm Patents In Attempt To Ban iPhone 8 And iPhone X
Apple and Qualcomm are battling in court right now over alleged patent infringement. The legal war shows no signs of letting up as Apple this week countersued Qualcomm, alleging that it was infringing on Apple patents. Qualcomm has now pulled out some old Palm patents in an attempt to get the ITC to ban Apple's fresh iPhone 8 and iPhone X.
Qualcomm filed the complaint in the U.S. district Court for the Southern District of California and alleges that Apple is infringing on five patents, with four of them originating from Palm. That other patent is from a patent portfolio that was previously owned by TouchTable. The patents include U.S. Patent Nos. 8,683,362, 8,497,928, 7,844,037 and 9,203,940.
The '362 patent has to do with a card-based multitasking interface originally used in webOS. The '928 patent has to do with camera focusing methods, specifically a tap to focus system using a screen as a digital viewfinder. The '037 patent is for a method of responding to an incoming call with a text, sending it to voicemail, or declining the call. The '940 patent is to do with a power button that is multi-use for turning the phone on an off, silencing incoming calls, and activating a screen.
Qualcomm also filed a second complaint, and this one has a total of six patents having to do with tech ranging from machine learning to power management.
Qualcomm claims that the new complaints aren’t directly related to Apple's legal action. Qualcomm General Counsel Don Rosenberg noted, "You can't react that quickly to file lawsuits. 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."
The Apple devices covered in these suits are limited to those using Intel LTE modems. Qualcomm has already asked the ITC for an injunction on the iPhone 7 and iPad models it claims are infringing on its patents.
