US judge rules Qualcomm owes Apple nearly US$1bil rebate payment

FILE PHOTO: A woman holds her phone near an Apple company logo in Beijing, China December 14, 2018. REUTERS/Jason Lee/File Photo

A US federal judge has issued a preliminary ruling that Qualcomm Inc owes Apple Inc nearly US$1bil (RM4.08bil) in patent royalty rebate payments, though the decision is unlikely to result in Qualcomm writing a check to Apple because of other developments in the dispute.

Judge Gonzalo Curiel of the US District Court for the Southern District of California on March 14 ruled that Qualcomm, the world's biggest supplier of mobile phone chips, was obligated to pay nearly US$1bil (RM4.08bil) in rebate payments to Apple, which for years used Qualcomm's modem chips to connect iPhones to wireless data networks.