Samsung Wants Apple to Reveal Its Contract with Qualcomm

Samsung has requested details of the contract between iPad and iPhone maker Apple and the company which provides the chipsets for those machines, Qualcomm.

With Samsung currently locked in a legal battle with Apple over the Cupertino firm’s possible patent infringement, the nature of the deal between them and Qualcomm could leave Apple almost immune from Samsung’s claims.

If Qualcomm has licensed its technology to Apple directly then the company effectively has the same deal as Samsung, meaning “Apple’s buying Qualcomm chips is as good as paying for the patents” and neutralizing any litigation in the process…

The contract between Apple and Qualcomm will be submitted to courts in eight different countries, including France, Germany, Japan, Italy, Australia, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and South Korea. Samsung is currently taking Apple on in all eight of the countries listed, and the documents could prove important in all of them.

“One of Apple’s primary defenses is that it is entitled to use the chipsets at issue…Samsung seeks to streamline discovery in the litigation with Apple by requesting these highly-relevant documents only once, rather than issuing duplicative requests in each of the foreign litigations.”

Apple’s only response at this time has been to say that it will continue to protect its intellectual property from “blatant copying.”

Them’s fighting words.

[Electronista]