A German court found Thursday that iPhone 7 through iPhone X models infringe on one Qualcomm hardware patent and ordered Apple to stop selling the phones in Germany.
Apple has pulled the smartphone models from the shelves of its 15 company owned retail stores in the country, according to a spokesman.
They remain for sale at wireless carries and 4,300 third party retail stores for now, according to Apple.
But the court order requires Apple to stop selling infringing iPhones at all retailers in Germany, as well as make an effort to claw back unsold inventory, said Marcus Grosch, a lawyer with Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan who represents Qualcomm in the case.
The order takes effect once Qualcomm posts two bonds covering potential damages to Apple if the patent infringement ruling is overturned on appeal.
Qualcomm said it would post the two bonds, which are expected to total $1.5 billion, in the next several days.
Newer iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and iPhone XR models are not included in the sales ban. They weren't included in Qualcomm's patent infringement lawsuit, filed in 2017, because they weren't on the market yet.
But Qualcomm could seek to add these new iPhones to the sales ban if it determines that they infringe on its low-power envelope tracking patent.
"We are of course disappointed by this verdict and we plan to appeal," Apple said in a statement. "Qualcomm's campaign is a desperate attempt to distract from the real issues between our companies. Qualcomm insists on charging exorbitant fees based on work they didn't do and they are being investigated by governments all around the world for their behavior."
The German court's infringement finding comes after a Chinese provincial court earlier this month ordered Apple to stop selling iPhone 6 through iPhone X models for infringing on two Qualcomm patents.
"Two respected courts in two different jurisdictions just in the past two weeks have now confirmed the value of Qualcomm's patents and declared Apple an infringer, ordering a ban on iPhones in the important markets of Germany and China," said Don Rosenberg, Qualcomm's general counsel, in a statement.
In China, Apple reportedly updated its iPhone software to work around the Qualcomm patents and continues to sell all iPhone models there.
Qualcomm believes the Chinese court ban remains in effect despite the software updates. It is working to add newer iPhone models such as the iPhone XS and iPhone XR to the ban.
"It applies to phones even if they have patches, even if they have new operating system installations, unless and until Apple can prove � they have the burden _ to this court that these models are no longer infringing," said Rosenberg in a recent interview with Bloomberg TV.
Since early 2017, Qualcomm and Apple have been waging a wide-ranging legal war over royalties that Qualcomm charges for use of its patented cellular technology.
Apple's Asian contract manufacturers that build iPhones stopped paying patent royalties to Qualcomm, and Apple ditched Qualcomm chips from its latest iPhone models.
Qualcomm has filed patent infringement lawsuits and sought to ban the sale of certain iPhones models in the U.S., China and Germany.
The District Court of Munich found Apple is infringing on a Qualcomm hardware patent related to envelope tracking, which manages how wireless signals are received in a smartphone at low power.
Apple request to delay enforcement of the ruling was denied. The court Qualcomm's request for detailed accounting of all sales, recall and destruction of iPhones that infringe on the patent.
Chip maker Qorvo supplied envelop tracking chips to iPhone 7, iPhone 8 and iPhone X models sold in Germany.
A Qorvo lawyer told Reuters that U.S. trade regulators found that the company did not infringe on Qualcomm's patent, and that the chip's inventor was not allowed to testify at the German hearing.
"We believe our envelope tracking chip does not infringe the patent in suit, and the court would have come to a different conclusion if it had considered all the evidence," Mike Baker, Qorvo's chief intellectual property lawyer, told Reuters in a statement.
Qualcomm has filed additional infringement cases against Apple in Germany, China and the U.S. involving different patents. Those cases are pending.
In China, Apple has asked the Fuzhou Intermediate People's Court to reconsider its ban of older iPhone models.
Qualcomm contends that the Chinese order is not specific to any operating system and that Apple is ignoring the court order by continuing to sell infringing iPhones in China. Qualcomm also says new iPhone XS and iPhone XR models also infringe on its intellectual property and is expected to seek a ban on those models as well.
In the U.S., the International Trade Commission found that iPhone models with Intel modems infringe on a Qualcomm power management patent. But an Administration Law Judge refused to ban sales of infringing iPhones because it could harm competition for top-tier cellular chips.
The ITC announced earlier this month that it would review the Administrative Law Judge's findings � including the infringement decision and whether a ban is warranted.
A key court date in for Qualcomm is coming in January, when the trial in the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's antitrust lawsuit against Qualcomm is slated to begin in federal court in San Jose.
In addition, the main lawsuit between Apple, Qualcomm and contract manufacturers that build iPhones is scheduled for trial in April in San Diego federal court.
