The Federal Trade Commission has won a landmark victory against Qualcomm.
The Federal Trade Commission has prevailed in its antitrust case against Qualcomm, with the verdict impacting how Qualcomm negotiates patent licenses from phone manufacturers going forward. The FTC filed the lawsuit back in 2017, alleging that Qualcomm resorted to anti-competitive tactics to maintain its dominant position in the cellular modem space.
Qualcomm has an effective monopoly when it comes to baseband modems, with the company licensing its tech to everyone from Apple, Samsung, Huawei, LG, Sony, Lenovo, and others. Basically, if you`re using a phone that connects to a 4G network, chances are it`s using a Qualcomm modem. Qualcomm also has a trove of networking patents around 2G, 3G, and 4G, and software features including Wi-Fi power management and airplane mode. To use any of these features, phone makers had to shell out a license fee.
The FTC took issue with the way Qualcomm licensed its technology ...
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