After Apple expanded its lawsuit against the wireless chip maker earlier this week, Qualcomm has responded with claims that its “innovations are at the heart of every iPhone and enable the most important uses and features of those devices,” MacRumors reports. Apple claims Qualcomm is “double-dipping” by forcing manufacturers to pay unreasonable licensing rates and royalties to gain access to its chips. Qualcomm fired back that “Apple knows well that Qualcomm has been the de facto R&D arm of the industry” and claimed that Apple is “rarely first to market with any new technology, which shows it is relying heavily on the R&D investments in the most revolutionary technologies by companies like Qualcomm.” How integral Qualcomm’s technology is to the iPhone has become the central question of the case, with Apple arguing that Qualcomm charging royalties on the entire value of the device is unfair given the company only supplies one component. “As Apple innovates, Qualcomm demands more. Qualcomm had nothing to do with creating the revolutionary Touch ID, the world’s most popular camera, or the Retina display Apple’s customers love, yet Qualcomm wants to be paid as if these (and future) breakthroughs belong to it,” Apple said in its complaint.
