In a fresh charge against Apple, Qualcomm has accused the iPhone-maker of stealing “vast swaths” of confidential information related to chips and trading the secrets with Intel to improve the performance of chips provided by the rival chipmaker to the Cupertino tech giant. The lawsuit was filed in the Superior Court in San Diego. The fresh allegations build on the existing charges that Qualcomm had pressed against Apple, claiming that the company infringed its terms of licence claiming that Apple has failed to protect its proprietary software and is not allowing an audit of how Apple handles its software, something which is part of Qualcomm’s contract that the former signed when it became the chipmaker’s customer a decade ago.
Though the charges look to be a part of the previous lawsuit filed against the iPhone-maker, according to Qualcomm's General Counsel, Donald Rosenberg, the case stands on its own and would have been filed regardless of the on-going dispute, CNBC reported. “Unlawful use of Qualcomm's valuable trade secrets to try to help a competitor catch up irreparably harms us and must not be allowed to continue,” Rosenberg was quoted as saying. According to the latest filing, Qualcomm says that Apple stole “source code and tools for the express purpose of helping Intel overcome engineering flaws in its chips that led to their poor performance in iPhones.”
CNBC reports that Qualcomm does not provide direct evidence to support the allegations but is “hoping its latest charges will be added to the current lawsuit against Apple and that the case will still be on track for its current court date of April.” Previously, Qualcomm claimed that Intel has not delivered on its promise of providing documents on the latest radio frequency components being used in the new Apple iPhones. In a motion filed against Intel, Qualcomm claims that it even agreed to limit its demands so that a resolution could be reached quickly.
As per an iFixit teardown of the iPhone Xs and the iPhone Xs Max, the two devices come equipped with Intel PMB9955 baseband processor, which is likely the XMM7560 modem chip. According to a report, users who will buy any of the above mentioned iPhones from the 2018 lineup may be on the losing side because a recent SpeedTest report by Ookla and Qualcomm revealed that phones powered by the Qualcomm chips are way faster than Apple’s iPhones that incorporate Intel modems.