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posted by mrpg on Saturday December 31 2016, @03:19AM   Printer-friendly
from the don't-call-me-text-me dept.

Qualcomm Inc. has been fined 1.03 trillion won (approximately $853 million) by South Korea's antitrust regulator:

The South Korean Fair Trade Commission said Wednesday that the company licensed its key patents only to mobile-phone makers and didn't properly negotiate the terms of its licenses. The agency also said Qualcomm coerced its customers into signing patent license contracts when selling its chips used in mobile phones in the country, and it didn't fairly pay for the use of patents held by other phone makers.

The decision from the home country of Samsung Electronics Co. adds to investor concern that the San Diego-based chipmaker, which is also the subject of investigations in the U.S. and Europe, may struggle to defend its lucrative licensing business. Qualcomm gets the majority of profit -- $6.5 billion in its most recent financial year -- from selling the right to use technology that's fundamental to all modern phone systems.

Qualcomm, calling the decision "unprecedented and insupportable," said it will appeal the decision in Seoul's High Court. The KFTC ruling doesn't go into effect immediately and Qualcomm will seek a stay from the courts while it appeals, said Don Rosenberg, the company's general counsel.

Also at WSJ and Reuters.


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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 31 2016, @03:57AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 31 2016, @03:57AM (#447744)

    Sometimes you're collecting, sometimes you're getting collected.

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