The legal battle between Apple and Qualcomm over unpaid royalty rebates and patent licensing has reached a premature end, as the two companies have reached a settlement, agreeing to drop all litigation.
Apple announced the settlement in a press release Tuesday afternoon.
Qualcomm and Apple today announced an agreement to dismiss all litigation between the two companies worldwide. The settlement includes a payment from Apple to Qualcomm. The companies also have reached a six-year license agreement, effective as of April 1, 2019, including a two-year option to extend, and a multiyear chipset supply agreement.
It sounds as if Qualcomm got the best end of the deal, as Apple is paying them an undisclosed amount, and gets a six-year licensing agreement and a multi-year chipset agreement in the deal.
The settlement puts an end to all ongoing litigation between the two parties, as well as Apple’s contract manufacturers. The chipset agreement suggests Apple may once again begin using Qualcomm’s modem chips in its iPhones, including in their 2020 iPhones, which are expected to be the first 5G-capable iPhones.
The legal battle that ended today goes back to 2017, when Apple first sued Qualcomm for over $1 billion in unpaid royalty rebates. They accused the San Diego chip maker of anticompetitive patent licensing practices.
