Qualcomm Asks Chinese Courts to Ban Sales of iPhone XS, iPhone XR

Earlier this week, Qualcomm won a preliminary injunction against older iPhone models in China following which a court ordered a sales ban of those models for violating two Qualcomm patents.

Now, the chip maker is seeking a ban on the latest iPhone XS and iPhone XR models as well and is planning to use the same patents to file new suits in Chinese courts, The Financial Times is reporting (via Reuters).

Although intellectual property lawyers believe a ban on sales of even the older iPhone models is unlikely to happen any time soon, Jiang Hongyi, a lawyer at Lexfield Law Offices who is representing Qualcomm in its patent suits, is confident he can have the court extend the ban to the three new iPhone models using the same patents.

Apple said on Monday that all of its phone models remained on sale in mainland China and that it had filed a request for reconsideration with the court, the first step in a long appeal process that could end up at China’s Supreme Court.

Apple had also said its three models released in September were not part of the case.

Amid the ongoing global patent dispute between Apple and Qualcomm, a recent report claimed that Apple is already working on an in-house modem to leave Intel behind and compete directly with Qualcomm.