Tech giants Apple and Qualcomm have been feuding over a series of lawsuits aimed at dirty business practices and information theft. Qualcomm has been the supplier of microchips for Apple devices for years. This all changed with the newest series of iPhones being released. Apple has switched their supplier to Intel and Qualcomm believes they know why. The company is suing Apple for allegedly stealing the information required for enhanced chips and giving it to Intl, who in turn would give Apple a better price for products of the same quality. This is not the first time they have had a dispute and it is doubtful that it’s the last.

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In the past Qualcomm has filed over one hundred claims of patent infringement against Intel but eighty-eight of those did not succeed. Apple claims that the company is damaging the industry and their own reputation by aggressively pursuing legal action so frequently. This may be the case but if a company is making multiple million dollar products, of course they would want them to be protected. These kinds of suits are not uncommon, especially in the tech industry as it is rather cutthroat. Apple has stated that such tactics are harming the entirety of the industry by creating blurred lines on patents and informational privacy but Qualcomm has not relented and they hold that their hard work has been stolen.

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The allegations are scathing and if true, it unveils a much more troubling norm for business practices in tech innovations. Because Apple and Qualcomm have teams of engineers that work so closely, it is possible that some information was taken and put into the wrong hands. That is exactly Qualcomm’s claim as they stated that Apple engineers forwarded private information to their partner Intel’s engineers to allow for an upgrade to Intel’s current design. The new line of iPhones have reportedly had issues revolving around the chips capabilities since they switched to Intel and this could be the reason Apple wished to give their partner a hand.

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There are currently numerous pending cases between the companies from a number of legal claims from Qualcomm including a few infringements of their technology in Apple iPhones and the potentially stolen information. The courts, residing in California, have yet to make any decisions in the cases but a judge did block Qualcomm’s plea to block all Apple devices with Intel chips from being imported into the United States which would be devastating to Apples sales, due to their recent release.

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The decisions of the court could result in billions of dollars changing hands if Apple and Intel are found guilty due to the incredible amount of sales lost by Qualcomm from the supplier switch. Whether the claims are unsubstantiated or found to be true, it marks a negative environment in the tech world with abuse of the legal system instead of pure innovation and quality of design. Hopefully, this is resolved quickly and fairly but it is likely that this will last for at least a few more years.