Qualcomm Must Award a Technology License to Competitors Such as Intel and Judge Rules

A US federal judge ruled Tuesday that the chip seller Qualcomm had to give some of its technology to competitors such as Intel.

The preliminary ruling was made in the course of an anti-trust lawsuit against Qualcomm filed by the US Federal Trade Commission in early 2017 and is expected to be litigated next year.

Judge Lucy Koh's preliminary ruling in the US District Court in Northern California indicated that Qualcomm had to license certain patents related to the manufacture of modem chips, which allow smartphones to connect to data networks. wireless, competing.

This decision is a setback for Qualcomm as the chip company and the FTC jointly asked Koh last month to delay the decision on the issue for up to 30 days, pending further negotiations for a settlement. .

Koh rejected this request and made his decision on Tuesday.

It was not clear at what time and how the decision would affect settlement negotiations. Qualcomm shares lost about 0.3% to $ 63.26 after the news.

Qualcomm, the FTC and Intel did not immediately return requests for comments.

An agreement with US regulators would be a turning point for San Diego's chip chip company, which is defending its business model against lawsuits from major customers such as Apple and Huawei Technologies, while addressing the regulatory challenges posed by its practices around the world.

In civil litigation and regulatory litigation, the issue is whether Qualcomm's patent licensing practices, when combined with its chip business, constitute anti-competitive behavior. The South Korean and Taiwanese regulators initially ruled against Qualcomm, which appealed against these decisions and settled some of them.

In August, in Taiwan, Qualcomm settled with regulators a budget of $ 93 million and an agreement to invest $ 700 million in the country over the next five years.