Apple’s prolonged licensing battle with Qualcomm just took a major turn as the Fuzhou Intermediate People’s Court in China court ruled in favor of Qualcomm in two patent infringement lawsuits and granted an injunction on the importation and sale of any iPhone 6S through iPhone X in China. In September, a U.S. ITC administrative judge preliminarily ruled that Apple had infringed on a Qualcomm patent but recommended against granting an import ban of some iPhones into the U.S. This means that Apple is essentially banned from selling all infringing iPhones in China. Apple currently sells more iPhones in the U.S. than in China, but China is one of the largest potential markets for Apple and iPhones still account for around 11%of all phones sold in China or roughly 24.5 million units through Q3 of 2018 according to IDC. Considering the ITC and China court findings of infringement, we believe similar findings are possible in Germany and/or remaining U.S. court cases, but it is too early to determine if similar injunctions will be granted.

Source: Forbes December 10, 2018 16:07 UTC