Court documents show that Apple deliberately bought a cheap set of patents to help Qualcomm's royalty claims look too expensive.

The legal battle between Qualcomm and Apple is now over thanks to a settlement whose financial value is unknown, but as the settlement came a day before the start of the trial, some details of the discovery process have emerged.

One particularly devious point is that Qualcomm's lawyers discovered internal emails from Apple that showed the company was specifically seeking patent licenses that were bargains for use as evidence against Qualcomm's royalties, by comparing the cost from each pile.

In its opening statements, the Washington Post noted that Apple's lawyers had testified before the jury that Apple had successfully concluded patent licensing agreements with companies such as Huawei and Ericsson, and that all of these groups were two times the size of Qualcomm's patent stack but were available at a fraction of the cost.

This argument sounded solid until Qualcomm found conflicting evidence that Apple was strategically focused on buying patents that would give Qualcomm an inexpensive appearance. rather than simply being in the state of nature. Qualcomm's lawyers said Apple's goal was to "create" evidence.

According to the documents, Apple has "selectively filtered" a group of patent licenses for "the most desirable transactions", using patents as "comparable evidence in disputes with others". Qualcomm's lawyer, Evan Chesler, claimed that the "other" referred to Qualcomm. Apple declined to comment on the documents and allegations.

"So they went to see these other companies and they negotiated very cheap contracts in recent years to create the evidence that would allow them to come here and tell you that these guys are good because they're getting less for their patents and us the bad guys, "Chesler told the jury.

The Washington Post quotes a law professor who says this finding is "troubling" because it probably means that Apple was acting in bad faith with antitrust commissions over the real value of Qualcomm's patent portfolio.

Neither Apple nor Qualcomm seemed particularly magnanimous in the last two years of the conflict.

A decision by the FTC on Qualcomm's misuse of the essential patent system of the FRAND standards is expected in the coming months.

However, the good news is that the court settlement means that customers will ultimately benefit from the best 5G chips available for the "iPhone 12" in 2020.

Apple's initial plan was to use Intel to provide a 5G modem on time, but it appears that Intel has failed to deliver and the company has now decided to end its operations in the US. modems sector.