a little more detail
Qualcomm Says Apple Breached Contract, Exposed Chip Info
Share us on: By Kat Greene
Law360, Los Angeles (November 2, 2017, 9:42 PM EDT) -- Qualcomm Inc. fired another shot in its patent licensing war against Apple Inc. on Wednesday, lodging a suit in California state court alleging the iPhone maker exposed Qualcomm’s trade secrets to engineers who were working on a competing product with Intel.
Apple had signed a master software agreement with Qualcomm in 2010 that gave the Cupertino, California, company access to some of Qualcomm’s proprietary information, including some of its software and baseband modem chipsets that help make smartphones work, according to the suit.
To gain that kind of access, Apple had “exercised its commercial leverage” and promised to keep the information close, allowing only certain engineers to see the private information on certain computers, according to the suit. But Apple didn’t keep its promise, Qualcomm said.
Instead, it allowed an engineer for Intel and Apple engineers who were working with Intel to develop a chip that competes with Qualcomm’s own product to see under the Qualcomm hood, according to the suit in San Diego Superior Court on Wednesday.
“The restrictions in the MSA are designed to maintain the confidentiality of Qualcomm’s source code and related proprietary information,” the company said in its complaint. “Upon information and belief, Apple has violated the confidentiality and restricted use provisions of the MSA.”
For example, Qualcomm said, the chipmaker received correspondence showing that, instead of preventing information about Qualcomm’s proprietary information from being shared with Apple engineers that work with competing vendors, Apple had instead just redacted the code name Apple uses for Qualcomm on that correspondence.
And an Apple engineer working on a competing vendor’s product asked an Apple engineer working on Qualcomm’s product to get information from Qualcomm about an element of its product, the company said in its suit.
The suit includes claims for breach of contract and seeks unspecified damages for Qualcomm’s exposed data, according to the complaint.
The suit is the latest salvo in a fight between the two California technology giants that is unfolding on several legal fronts. Apple has complained that Qualcomm is collecting royalties based on a percentage of the iPhone’s price, which the phonemaker said unfairly rewards Qualcomm for innovations it had nothing to do with.
And Qualcomm has argued that Apple has contributed "virtually nothing to the development of core cellular technology" and has built the most profitable company in the world by relying heavily on its patented technologies. The chipmaker also recently accused Apple of infringing several patents related to phone performance and battery life.
A spokeswoman for Qualcomm declined to comment. A representative for Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
Qualcomm is represented by David A. Nelson and Stephen A. Swedlow of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP, Karen P. Hewitt and Randall E. Kay of Jones Day and Evan R. Chesler of Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP.
Counsel information for Apple couldn’t be immediately determined.
The case is Qualcomm Inc. v. Apple Inc., case number 37-2017-00041389-CU-BC-NC, in the Superior Court of the State of California, County of San Diego.
--Additional reporting by Matthew Bultman and Eric Kroh. Editing by Alyssa Miller.
News 
Market Data 
Discover 
AI
