Speaker 1: Well, now it's time for our daily Bloomberg Law Brief,
Speaker 1: exploring legal issues and the news. It's brought to you
Speaker 1: by American Arbitration Association, International Trade or Business Dispute Resolve
Speaker 1: Faster with the International Center for Dispute Resolution, the leader
Speaker 1: in alternative dispute resolution around the world i c d
Speaker 1: R dot org. Today, Bloomberg LA host Greg Store discusses
Speaker 1: the ongoing legal fight between Apple and qual Calm over
Speaker 1: the technology that allows most smartphones to send him received data.
Speaker 1: He speaks with Max Chafkin, a reporter for Bloomberg Business Week.
Speaker 1: Tell us, tell him, explain to me what Qualcom's great
Speaker 1: technology is and why it is so important to my
Speaker 1: my iPhone. Pretty much any phone you own today relies
Speaker 1: on this Qualcom technology, which is the technology that allows
Speaker 1: you to send and receive data through a cellular connection.
Speaker 1: So if you're making a phone call or or sending
Speaker 1: a mobile message, or going on Snapchat, or doing pretty
Speaker 1: much anything you do in the modern world that is
Speaker 1: that is using a three G or four G connection,
Speaker 1: you rely on Basically this this big basket of patents
Speaker 1: that that Qualcom developed, which which sort of figures out
Speaker 1: how to squeeze data into radio signals, and to do
Speaker 1: it efficiently, they charge a a flat royalty on the
Speaker 1: on the price of every handset that's sold around the world. Um.
Speaker 1: And Apple, uh, and and it appears maybe there may
Speaker 1: be a couple of other companies joining them. Has has
Speaker 1: basically said enough enough and and they're fighting this uh,
Speaker 1: this this big legal battle. Yeah. So walk me through
Speaker 1: the relationship between Apple and Qualcomm. In your story you
Speaker 1: talk about how they a little while back had a deal. Um.
Speaker 1: But but but I guess that's that deal maybe breaking down.
Speaker 1: So what's what's kind of ingenious or maybe, depending on
Speaker 1: your perspective, diabolical with with Qualcom's business model? Is they
Speaker 1: so so they do two things. One is they have
Speaker 1: the patents and the other is they manufacture the chips
Speaker 1: that are used in many phones. But they don't they don't.
Speaker 1: They're not the only manufacturer of chips. They're just the
Speaker 1: manufacturer of the best chips basically. And whether you buy
Speaker 1: your chips from Qualcom or from one of its competitors,
Speaker 1: you still have to pay that that royalty. And what
Speaker 1: happened with Apple and this is Apple's contention in in
Speaker 1: the lawsuit. Um, is that Qualcom used it's basically basic
Speaker 1: power as a chip manufacturer to force Apple to agree
Speaker 1: to terms that that it now says our our ownerous.
Speaker 1: And the thing that changed is basically that Apple got
Speaker 1: a second supplier. Apple convinced Intel to invest some money
Speaker 1: to make a competing modem, which which is now in
Speaker 1: some iPhones, but not all iPhones. And it was that, um,
Speaker 1: that sort of buying power that allowed Apple to turn
Speaker 1: around and and and now um, you know, start negotiating harder,
Speaker 1: which led to this dispute. That's Max Chafkin, a reporter
Speaker 1: for a Bloomberg Business Week, speaking with Bloomberg La host
Speaker 1: Greg Store. And you can listen to Bloomberg Law weekdays
Speaker 1: at one pm Wall Street Time here on Bloomberg Radio
Speaker 1: and now. Among the top legal stories from Bloomberg Law,
Speaker 1: Oscar winning movie mogul Harvey Weinstein has taken a leave
Speaker 1: of absence from his production company over sexual harassment allegations.
Speaker 1: According to The New York Times, Monstein has reached at
Speaker 1: least eight settlements with women claiming that he harass them.
Speaker 1: Actress Ashley Judd was among those saying she had been
Speaker 1: harassed and us this morning's Bloomberg Law Brief. You can
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