The US Supreme Court on Monday again refused to hear Apple’s request to cancel three Qualcomm smartphone patents, according to Reuters.
The US Supreme Court has reserved the lower court’s ruling against Apple after it similarly rejected Apple’s appeal in June of a ruling challenging two other Qualcomm patent-related cases.
Qualcomm sued Apple in San Diego federal court, arguing that its iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch infringed its mobile technology patents. The case is part of a wider global dispute between the two tech giants.
Apple is challenging the validity of the patents at issue in the case before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board of the US Patent and Trademark Office. The two companies have largely stopped fighting in 2019 and have signed a multi-billion dollar agreement for Apple to continue using Qualcomm baseband chips in its iPhones. The agreement includes Apple’s licensing of thousands of Qualcomm patents but allows the Patent Board’s proceedings to continue.
The Board upheld these Qualcomm patents in 2020, and Apple then appealed to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on the grounds that Qualcomm could use it again after the license expired (as early as 2025), and the Federal Circuit dismissed the case for lack of standing, finding that the risk of Apple being sued again was speculative.
Qualcomm again argued that Apple had not shown a concrete injury to justify the appeal, as it had in the “substantially the same” case dismissed by the High Court.
