Legal Battle against Qualcomm
LG Electronics has joined the Korean Fair Trade Commission (FCT)’s 1.03 trillion won (US$915 million) lawsuit against U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm.
The FTC imposed a fine of 1.03 trillion won on Qualcomm in 2016 for abusing its patents. However, Qualcomm did not accept it and filed an administrative suit. Samsung Electronics, Apple, Intel, MediaTek and Huawei joined the FTC as its ancillary participants. Yet Samsung Electronics concluded a patent cross-licensing agreement with Qualcomm early this year and dropped out of the lawsuit.
Samsung's withdrawal weakened the FTC's position in the lawsuit. But the participation of LG Electronics in the commission's alliance is expected to bolster its stance in the lawsuit.
Industry watchers say LG Electronics has decided to participate in the legal battle against Qualcomm as its negotiations with the U.S. chipmaker are not going well.
So far, the FTC and Qualcomm have had 11 hearings and interrogations since October of last year. It will take several more years for the court to come up with the final verdict.