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Apple said Tuesday that one of its engineers contributed to a patent Qualcomm says the iPhone maker infringed on, a twist in the long-running legal dispute between the two companies.
Apple said the concept behind the patent, which allows a smartphone to connect to the internet quickly once the device boots up, was proposed by Arjuna Siva, who worked for Apple before the 2011 release of the first iPhone that used a Qualcomm chip. Apple, which said Siva should be named on the patent, argued the point on the second day of a trial in a San Diego federal court.
Before Apple first released iPhones that use Qualcomm chips, the two companies worked together so Qualcomm could meet Apple's requirements for the components. To do that, the companies emailed back and forth and held calls together. The project was so secretive that the companies used code names for each other: Apple was "Maverick" and Qualcomm was "Eureka."
Apple says that while the two companies were in discussions, then-Apple engineer Arjuna Siva came up with the idea that Qualcomm would later patent. Siva, who now works at Google, will testify later in the trial.
"Does Qualcomm believe in giving credit where credit is due?" Apple's counsel, Joseph Mueller of Wilmer Hale, asked Monday.
Stephen Haenichen, Qualcomm's director of engineering and one of the inventors listed on the patent, said Siva didn't deserve credit for the invention. When asked what contribution Siva made, he replied, "Nothing at all."
In his testimony, Haenichen said Apple asked Qualcomm to build something the company had never made before, and to do it on a very short timeline. When Qualcomm delivered, Haenichen was thrilled. "It was clear this was going to change the way we build modems," he said Monday. "It was going to be meaningful to Qualcomm."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 10 2019, @12:53AM (4 children)
I have no love for the modern-day Apple nor lawyers, but I despise Qualcomm.
That said, I wish success to the Apple lawyers to screw over Qualcomm.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 10 2019, @01:13AM (3 children)
I hope the Qualcomm lawyers screw Apple. Qualcomm never foisted a cult upon us, so they are the better company in my book. Steve Jobs didn't invent anything, and was only a salesman.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 10 2019, @02:11PM (2 children)
You don't like Apple products (yes, a polite understatement) so you hate the founder that was able to focus and motivate his company on producing products that hundreds of millions of people like?
If inventing something is the true benchmark of any individual's worth - and I'm talking about Da Vinci and Edison types, not some "on a computer" patent application - then very few people have actual value. Did Henry Ford invent anything worth while? What about Ford Motor Co after his death? GM? Dodge/Chrysler? They all built upon the first vehicles produced and basically added "rounded corners".
I could go on and on about inventors, and industries and even salesmen. Wasn't Gandhi just a salesman for peace, or his philosophical and political views? The same goes for philosophers, authors, world leaders, etc. Just salesmen of their world views.
So hate on Jobs all you want. He was very good at running a company (oops, that's not just being a salesman) that produces products many, many people want and pay top dollar to obtain. For those of us who have owned Apple stock since it was around $6 (before the stock split), we certainly don't cast aspersions upon him (and especially not from our winter homes).
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Sunday March 10 2019, @09:38PM (1 child)
Oh yes, that Gandhi sounds like a chill dude, with his whole "let's all just get on together" spiel, but you just wait until he researches nukes.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 11 2019, @03:10AM
"Om ... MG! Did you see what that thing can do?"