Qualcomm Fined Record $773 Million in Taiwan Antitrust Probe

Megalith

Megalith

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Qualcomm was fined a record NT$23.4 billion ($773 million) by Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission in the latest blow from regulators over the way the US company prices mobile phone chips and patents: according to the regulator, the company has been violating antitrust rules for at least 7 years, collecting NT$400 billion in licensing fees from local companies during that time. Qualcomm disagrees with the decision and intends to appeal.

The Taiwanese regulator said Qualcomm has monopoly market status over key mobile phone standards and by not providing products to clients who don’t agree with its conditions, the U.S. company is violating local laws. It said Taiwanese companies had purchased $30 billion worth of Qualcomm baseband chips. “Qualcomm holds big number of standard essential patents in CDMA, WCDMA and LTE segments and is the dominant provider of CDMA, WCDMA and LTE baseband chips,” the FTC said. “It abused its advantage in mobile communication standards, refused to license necessary patents.”
 
I didn't realize that Taiwan was hurting this bad... To pull a EU on another successful US business. LOL
 
Probably part of Apple's attack.. I am telling you apple can see this blow up in their face horribly, they are basically kicking the patent hornet nest here.
Even if they win, same argument that they may use to win could very well be the one that will make them lose cases for their own tech.
 
PhotoBobBarker said:
I didn't realize that Taiwan was hurting this bad... To pull a EU on another successful US business. LOL
Click to expand...
It's not quite like that. Qualcomm's a massive dick in the cellular industry and it sits pretty with patent and essentially take the Qualcomm toll road or the high road.
 
Master_shake_ said:
So it's not fair, is the reason Qualcomm got fined?
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TSMC can't make those LTE chips obviously since Qualcomm has the patents (and wouldn't license those out), so Asus, Acer and HTC have no viable alternative whatsoever.
 
Master_shake_ said:
So it's not fair, is the reason Qualcomm got fined?
Click to expand...
When you hold a monopoly on crucial technology for major international infrastructure projects, you tread very lightly. Try to swing a big dick around, and you just might find it running into the knives of government regulators.

Eating the better part of a billion in fines is getting off light. Keep pushing, and you might just see your precious IP getting nationalized, or your company getting broken up — Ma Bell -style
 
Is it illegal to make a compatible LTE chip?

Maybe design your own?

Then you won't have to rely on one design.
 
Stuff like these are usually covered by Standard-essential patents, and AFAIK LTE is a technical standard and must conform to several specifications set out by those standards, and those standards would inherently fall into the scope of those standard-essential patents.

So no, if you want it to be called LTE, you must obey LTE's rules, and those rules are covered by patents, which inevitably become unavoidable. In other words, the design of the chip does not matter.
 
Love it. The butthurt negative comments are also great. It amounts to "To the winner go the spoils." Also the typical attitude of "It's not a problem until it affects me." If it's the other way around with some foreign company doing it, their comments would be reversed.
 
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