American chipmaker Qualcomm has asked courts in China to put a ban on the sales of Apple’s iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and iPhone XR models in the country. The company has won a preliminary injunction against older models of iPhone and only asked the court for the extension of the ban after its victory.
To recall, on Monday a court in China had ordered to ban the sales of some older Apple’s iPhone models because the Cupertino-based technology giant has violated Qualcomm’s two patents. It is worth noticing that prior to the judgement, most intellectual property lawyers thought of the potential ban as just an instant threat.
The case was filed by Qualcomm and it is a part of the global patent dispute between the two companies and it includes a number of lawsuits. Post the judgement, Qualcomm wants the ban to be extended to the latest models of iPhones, that was launched in September this year.
Qualcomm is being represented by Jiang Hongyi, a lawyer at Lexfield Law Offices, in its patent suits. Hongyi confirmed that Qualcomm wants to get the ban extended to iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and iPhone XR in the country to Financial Times saying, “We plan to use the same patents to file suit against the three new iPhone models.”
However, Apple seems to have not given up on this matter yet. The Cupertino based technology giant said on Monday after the judgement was passed that its phone models are still on sale in mainland China and went on to say that it has filed a request for reconsideration with the court. It is worth noticing that this is the very first step in an appeal process that may be very long and can actually be taken to China’s Supreme Court. The company also states that its latest iPhones – iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and iPhone XR (review) – are not a part of the ongoing case in China.
We should point out that Apple would take this ban extremely seriously considering the fact that China, Hong Kong and Taiwan accounted for around a fifth of Apple’s $265.6 billion in sales in the last fiscal year.
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