Qualcomm has agreed to pay $75 million to squash a lawsuit against its sales and licensing practices. The company decided to do so in a court filing last Tuesday, June 18.
The multinational corporation known primarily for its contributions to wireless telecommunications has faced various legal challenges. These include antitrust investigations and patent disputes and it continues to be a dominant player in its industry.
According to reports, Apple and the US Federal Trade Commission sued Qualcomm too. However, it’s the lawsuit from the shareholders that has got it to pay $75 million. The shareholders claim that the company misled them about how its operations worked and artificially inflated its stock price.
The shareholders filed against Qualcomm for failing to reveal how it handled its patent licensing. It is the same reason Apple and FTC also sued the California headquartered tech giant.
According to Reuters, the result left the shareholders’ lawsuit in a funny place. That is, Qualcomm’s stock price rose as a result. Therefore, their claim that Qualcomm artificially inflated its share price was left staggering. Due to that, the shareholders deem the settlement to be a good outcome – they are getting paid unlike everyone
However, a judge still has to approve the terms of the settlement.
Talking about the Qualcomm lawsuit, one company that has a long-standing legal dispute with the company is ParkerVision. In 2011, the latter sued the former alleging that it had infringed certain ParkerVision patents that disclosed a new radio frequency receiver.
The case was filed in the Middle District of Florida and was assigned to Judge Roy Dalton. Then, in 2013, a jury found that PartkerVision patents were valid, meaning that Qualcomm infringed. As a result, the jury awarded ParkerVision $173 million for damages.
Several weeks later, Judge Dalton surprisingly overturned the jury’s verdict and killed the case. Interestingly, that was just one of the several Qualcomm – ParkerVision legal cases.