As early as December 2016, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had determined that Qualcomm had a monopolistic behavior, penalized it, and ordered Qualcomm to renegotiate with customers on patent use issues.
One of the key points of the latest hearing is whether Qualcomm has violated the FRAND clause and unfairly hindered the business activities of other companies. Qualcomm has approximately 25,000 standard essential patents in the field of mobile communications.
FRAND – Fair, Reasonable, Non-Discriminatory – is a standard developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute that requires patent holders to provide patents under fair and reasonable conditions. Licensing, as a basis for innovation.
'We have not violated the FRAND terms because we are not obligated to provide a modem chip license under the FRAND terms. The modem chip does not apply to the FRAND rules. ' A Qualcomm representative told the trial judge.
The lawyer said: ' (even under the FRAND clause) There is no legal basis to show that violation of the FRAND clause can only be considered as a restriction on competition.
During the trial, representatives of Apple, Intel and Huawei also attended the meeting to support the Federal Trade Commission. Samsung initially assisted the US Federal Trade Commission in its work, but since Samsung decided not to get involved in the case, Did not attend the trial. Samsung expanded its cross-licensing agreement with Qualcomm in February this year.
'Qualcomm's violation of the FRAND clause is seen as a restriction on competition. If unfair business practices continue, companies that violate competition laws and dominate the market will become uncontrollable,' said a representative of the Federal Trade Commission.
The representative also said that because Qualcomm controls the market through improper means, all competitors that produce modem chipsets are kicked out of the market except Intel.
The representative said that nine competitors, including Broadcom, NVIDIA, Ericsson and Texas Instruments, are no longer selling chipsets - although the mobile communications market has doubled since 2008.
A lawyer from Apple supported the Federal Trade Commission's claim that the company could not use Intel's model chips for several years due to Qualcomm's unfair business practices.
However, Qualcomm's representative refutes this claim, saying that the disappearance of its competitors is due to other reasons – such as financial difficulties or the inability to retain intrinsic business.
The historic trial between Qualcomm and the US Federal Trade Commission is expected to last a full year, with more than 50 lawyers from seven major law firms participating. The United States, the European Union, China and Taiwan Similar investigations are being conducted in the region, and legal proceedings against unfair business practices between Qualcomm and the antitrust regulators of the above countries and regions are also underway.