Qualcomm counter-sued on April 10, accusing Apple of harming its business and breaching deals between the two companies. Qualcomm says it licensing agreements are fair and legal, pointing to a 2015 agreement with Chinese regulators and its hundreds of active license agreements with other manufacturers.
“We’ve Been Trying To Reach A Licensing Agreement With Qualcomm For More Than Five Years But The
"We've been trying to reach a licensing agreement with Qualcomm for more than five years but they have refused to negotiate fair terms," Apple said in a statement. "Without an agreed-upon rate to determine how much is owed, we have suspended payments until the correct amount can be determined by the court. As we've said before, Qualcomm's demands are unreasonable and they have been charging higher rates based on our innovation, not their own."
Apple claimed that Qualcomm was charging unfair royalties "for technologies they have nothing to do with," since the manufacturer provides only one part of the whole of the iPhone. "Despite being just one of over a dozen companies who contributed to basic cellular standards, Qualcomm insists on charging Apple at least five times more in payments than all the other cellular patent licensors we have agreements with combined," the Cupertino company stated in its lawsuit.
"We've been trying to reach a licensing agreement with Qualcomm for more than five years but they have refused to negotiate fair terms," Apple told Axios in a statement. "Without an agreed-upon rate to determine how much is owed, we have suspended payments until the correct amount can be determined by the court. As we've said before, Qualcomm's demands are unreasonable and they have been charging higher rates based on our innovation, not their own."
"The extension of our licensing agreement is further evidence of our mutual commitment to long-term collaboration," said Cristiano Amon, president and chief executive officer, Qualcomm Incorporated. "Our relationship with Samsung has never been stronger. For more than two decades we've worked together to lead the industry and we are pleased to continue this strategic partnership to develop innovative technologies and products using Snapdragon platforms to power more Samsung premium devices globally."
The San Jose-based developer of haptics technologies has been celebrating a strong set of results in licensing. This year it announced new mobile deals with Samsung Electronics and Google, which followed a 2018 pact with Apple. The company also sealed a pivotal agreement in the gaming sector with Sony, which will see its technologies implemented in the next generation of the PlayStation console.
Rico Zorkendorfer and Daniele De Iuliis, who together have morethan 35 years of experience at Apple, decided to leave the companyrecently, people familiar with the departures said. Another memberof the team with a decade of experience, Julian Hönig, plans toleave in the coming months, people familiar with his plans said.
Apple not only wanted to show how its work with various creativesand firms fits into the current culture of tech, it wanted to showthat it is a cultural institution in its own right. I believethat this is what many tech writers and commentators missed duringthis event, with their typical focus on Apple as a productcompany. Apple is broader and more multifaceted now than it everhas been before and it has enormous brand power.
Ren: We need to look to what President Xi has said to better understand his ideas. At the Boao Forum for Asia, he announced many policies for opening up. Then in November last year, at the China International Import Expo, he announced many measures China will take to open its market to the West. In December, during the celebration of China's 40th anniversary of reform and opening up, he announced that China will enhance the reformation of state-owned enterprises. These are all nothing more than reforms and opening up. In my opinion, China will become more open, not close its door to the world. Viewing China as a foreigner, you probably can't feel that. But we were born here and grew up in China, so we know how the environment has been gradually changing over the past 30 years.
Huawei people remained at their posts in malaria-stricken African countries. When the earthquake hit Japan, there was nuclear disaster. Everyone was worried about the radiation. They called me. I asked how bad it was. When the first atomic bomb was tested in China, many Chinese people went to watch. They had no idea what nuclear radiation was, but they went out to hoot and holler about it. At the time it caused very few health issues. So when Japanese people were being evacuated, our engineers were going in the opposite direction. They restored more than 600 base stations. The Japanese government saw what we did, and they praised us. They said "Huawei is a Japanese company". This is one of the reasons why we have been doing well in Japan all these years.
A major concern among some U.S. policymakers is the size of the U.S. merchandise trade deficit with China, which rose from $10 billion in 1990 to $367 billion in 2015 (see Figure 4). The deficit fell to $347 billion in 2016, but rose to $375 billion in 2017.41 For the past several years, the U.S. merchandise trade deficit with China has been significantly larger than with any other U.S. trading partner (see Figure 5). Some analysts contend that the large U.S. merchandise trade deficits with China indicate that the trade relationship is somehow unbalanced, unfair, and damaging to the U.S. economy. Others argue that such deficits are largely a reflection of shifts in global production and the emergence of extensive and complex supply chains, where China is often the final point of assembly for export-oriented multinational firms that source goods from multiple countries.
For many years, the accumulation of foreign exchange reserves (FERs) has been a major driver of China's overseas investment. China's FERs result from: (1) large annual trade surpluses and FDI inflows; (2) intervention by the Chinese government to halt or slow the value of its currency, the renminbi (RMB); and (3) restrictions on capital outflows by private Chinese citizens. Rather than holding foreign currencies, such as U.S. dollars which would earn no interest, the Chinese government has invested much of those reserves abroad. For many years, much of that investment has gone into U.S. Treasury securities. Although they generate low returns, such securities are generally viewed globally as a relatively safe investment because they are backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government and are liquid (e.g., easily sold), albeit generating relatively small rates of returns. More recently, the Chinese government has diversified its investments in order to obtain higher returns, such as by encouraging its firms (especially SOEs) to invest overseas to become more globally competitive, as well as to help China gain access to raw materials (such as oil), food, and technology. As a result, Chinese annual FDI outflows have grown significantly in recent years, rising from $21 billion in 2006 to $183 billion in 2016, making China the second-largest source of annual global FDI outflows.58
Many analysts contend that a U.S.-China BIT could have significant implications for bilateral commercial relations and the Chinese economy. According to then-USTR Michael Froman, such an agreement "offers a major opportunity to engage on China's domestic economic reforms and to pursue greater market access, a more level playing field, and a substantially improved investment environment for U.S. firms in China."88 For China, a high-standard BIT could help facilitate greater competition in China and result in a more efficient use of resources, factors which economists contend could boost economic growth. Some observers contend that China's pursuit of a BIT with the United States represents a strategy that is being used by reformers in China to jumpstart widespread economic reforms (which appear to have stalled in recent years). This strategy, it is argued, is similar to that used by Chinese reformers in their efforts to get China into the WTO in 2001. Such international agreements may give political cover to economic reformers because they can argue that the agreements build on China's efforts to become a leader in global affairs. This may make it harder for vested interests in China who benefit from the status quo to resist change. Some critics raise concerns that even if a high standard BIT is reached, ensuring China's full compliance may prove difficult, given China's extensive use of industrial policies. Others have raised questions as to the effect of such an agreement in boosting FDI flows and how that might impact U.S. jobs in affected industries.89 A BIT would have to be approved in the U.S. Senate by a two-thirds majority.
An illustration of alleged IPR theft in China involves American Superconductor Corporation (AMSC). On September 14, 2011, AMSC announced that it was filing criminal and civil complaints in China against Sinovel Wind Group Co., Ltd. (Sinovel), China's largest wind turbine producer, and other parties, alleging the illegal use of AMSC's intellectual property. According to AMSC, Sinovel illegally (by bribing an AMSC employee) obtained and used AMSC's wind turbine control software code to upgrade its 1.5 megawatt wind turbines in the field to meet proposed Chinese grid codes and to potentially allow for the use of core electrical components from other manufacturers.166 In addition, AMSC claimed that Sinovel refused to pay for past shipments from AMSC as well as honoring for future shipments of components and spare parts as well.167 AMSC has brought several civil cases against Sinovel, seeking to recover more than $1.2 billion for contracted shipments and damages caused by Sinovel's contract breaches.168 In 2013, the U.S. Justice Department issued indictments against Sinovel and two of its employees, along with a former AMSC employee, with trade secrets theft, describing the action as "nothing short of attempted corporate homicide."169According to AMSC, it lost about half of its market capitalization after Sinovel refused to honor its contracts, and that as of 2017 AMSC's stock valued had dropped by 96% and its workforce by 70%. One AMSC official said that it possessed emails that "include the actual transfer and Skype messages indicating that senior level Sinovel officials ordered the theft of AMSC IP and understood the devastating impact it would have on AMSC," and it estimated that 8,000 windmills in China (20% of the country's total) were operating on AMSC's stolen technology.170 2ff7e9595c
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