SAN DIEGO _ Apple has taken its legal attack on Qualcomm's patent licensing business global, filing two complaints in Chinese courts challenging the way Qualcomm gets paid for its cellular intellectual property.
The move comes after Apple sued Qualcomm last week in San Diego federal court over its patent licensing, among other things. It comes on the heels of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission taking legal action on similar issues three days earlier.
Qualcomm hasn't seen the Chinese complaints but learned about it from a Beijing Intellectual Property Court press release, which says Apple is seeking $145 million in damages.
Apple has yet to respond to an email seeking comment.
According to Qualcomm, one lawsuit alleges a violation of China's anti-monopoly law and the other requests a determination of the terms of a patent license between Qualcomm and Apple over cellular standard essential patents.
In early 2015, Qualcomm paid a $975 million fine and lower patent royalty rates for certain smartphones sold only in China as part of a settlement with the National Development and Reform Commission _ China's anti-monopoly regulator.
Qualcomm offered a patent license to Apple for Chinese sales based on similar terms of the NDRC settlement. Apple declined to take the license, claiming the San Diego company was still charging too much for key cellular patents.
"These filings by Apple's Chinese subsidiary are just part of Apple's efforts to find ways to pay less for Qualcomm's technology," said Don Rosenberg, Qualcomm's General Counsel, in a statement. "Apple was offered terms consistent with terms accepted by more than one hundred other Chinese companies and refused to even consider them."
Apple contends Qualcomm is withholding nearly $1 billion in volume cap "rebates" to Apple in retaliation for Apple cooperating with South Korea's anti-trust probe of Qualcomm.
In December, the Korea Fair Trade Commission fined Qualcomm $865 million and called for changes in the way it licenses patents.
Qualcomm has vowed to fight the legal and regulatory actions. "Qualcomm is prepared to defend its business model anywhere in the world," said Rosenberg. "We are proud of our history of contributing our inventions to the development and success of the mobile communications ecosystem."
Qualcomm is scheduled to release fiscal first quarter earnings later Wednesday after markets close.
